I don’t particularly recommend it, but my dentist saw something, a white patch, on my tongue, and the ENT guy he sent me to said it was probably nothing but we should take a few cells to be looked at just in case, and so I got a sliced tongue yesterday, which I haven’t had before other than in a deli sandwich on rye with mustard.
I got double-numbed, first with a spray, which didn’t hurt, then with a needle, which did (“little bite here” he said) and then the procedure itself, which kind of hurt even though my whole mouth was nominally not feeling any pain. When the anesthetic wore off, hours later, I got a terrific headache and my tongue was very sore, making my diet today consist of scrambled eggs and soup.
Results next week. I’m not worried and I’m wondering now if I should have resisted the biopsy idea a bit more. Maybe check it again in a month to see if the white patch grew any? Or maybe I was right to bite the bullet so to speak and get the procedure over with?
Tongues sure are full of nerves! Decades ago I bit a hole through the center of my tongue (I was in a plane crash) and that hurt more than all my other injuries. It also healed up the fastest, fortunately.
As a patient, I’d want a biopsy done in your situation. As a physician, I’m glad you got the biopsy. Head and neck cancers are nothing to fool around with; early diagnosis of problems is key to better outcomes.
I have Burning Mouth Syndrome and had a tongue biopsy done a couple of months ago to look at a suspicious spot. The spot turned out ok, but by far, the residual pain from the biopsy was the worst pain that I’ve ever experienced in all of my 50 years.
IANA medical anybody. IMO there are white spots and then there are white spots.
I’ve had oral white spots inspected that the dentist said were no big deal. No biopsy & they duly went away.
Your dentist and ENT saw something you don’t have the skill to recognize, but they do. Something aroused their suspicion even if you don’t know what it was.
By analogy: I get lots of skin cancers. Like dozens over 40+ years of fun in the sun. With my experience I can often tell what’s gonna be trouble & what’s a bug bite, abrasion, or rash. But I still get fooled one way or the other about 25% of the time.
My dermo has been practicing for ~25 years. He sees roughly my entire history every couple of workdays. He’s lots better at spotting trouble than I am. But even he is fooled from time to time & biopsies something benign or skips the biopsy & 6 months later it’s bigger & more obviously a problem.
IMO how much discomfort or inconvenience any given test entails has zero legit role in deciding whether to do it. Risk of adverse consequences is a legit part of the tradeoff, but not mere discomfort.
My bottom line:
As a non-pro we can only safely outsource the suspicion to them. Whether your spot turns out to be nothing or to be trouble, you did the right thing by hiring experts and following their advice. No matter how much it hurts today.
My son has a friend who had tongue cancer, and who wrote some detailed narrative about how it felt and what he went through to treat it. It was really horrible. The biopsy was worth doing.
Oh, God, no - if a dentist or doc see something suspicious you absolutely should get the biopsy. If something is cancer you want to catch it as early as possible, the longer it goes the harder and more painful it is to treat.
Yeah, it hurt - surgery to remove part of your tongue, chemo and radiation would be even more miserable, for a longer period of time.
I’m glad you go the biopsy.
I hope it turns out to be a false alarm.
And if it turns out benign it was still worth it to be sure it wasn’t something that might kill you down the line.
If it’s not benign you’ll be glad you caught it when it was smaller, not larger.
I had a biopsy of my tongue once. It did hurt during recovery, but I found popsicles/frozen fruit bars helped.
I knew a woman who’d had to have most of her tongue removed due to cancer. She couldn’t pronounce many consonants, and there were a lot of foods she couldn’t eat. You definitely don’t want to risk that.
My mother did as well, and it started with a white spot on her tongue that was noticed by the dentist. It ended up with a partial glossectomy though they replaced the tissue with a graft from arm muscle. That was over twenty years ago, though.
A close friend of mine is a dental hygeinist. She tells stories (without identifying details, of course) about patients who don’t listen to the doctor’s advice to have things checked out early, and how bad things get… It can get really bad. Good job getting this looked at!
Tongue feels almost normal (four days after biopsy). I can swallow without discomfort. Lab results Tuesday.
Feeling pretty good generally–I’m expecting a benign result on Tuesday, though I’m prepared for anything. Thanks to all those confirming that having the biopsy was better than putting it off, even those who posted scary stuff designed to put the fear of cancer into me. Saul Goodman.
Good luck w the healing and the results.