# Those bony lumps on the floor of my mouth... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 28, 2008, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-bony-lumps-on-the-floor-of-my-mouth/450957 "2008-05-28T23:26:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Pessor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pessor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pessor)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2008, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-bony-lumps-on-the-floor-of-my-mouth/450957/1 "2008-05-28T23:26:16Z")
I know I’ve heard the term before, but I forget it. Those bony lumps under my tongue- up front. I bit off a bite of kielbasa-dog-on-a-stick and burned the shiite out of them. Mine are huge- as are my mom’s and my sisters. Showing my (insert huge genetic cartiledge-like lumps’ name here) to my very young coworkers, they think that I’m a freak. Yeah, and day two of the pain from the initial burn, they were feeling okay- until I took a bite of a pastrami sandwich- which had toasted white bread, (which I hate anyway) yeah that was pretty much like sandpaper on the eyeballs… ☹ What are those things called?? …so that I may get some internet photos to show the kids that I’m not the only freak out there??? Thank you! Pessor ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2008, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-bony-lumps-on-the-floor-of-my-mouth/450957/2 "2008-05-28T23:30:56Z")
Possibly a [mandibular torus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torus_mandibularis)? Mr. S had one of these (though we also didn’t know what it was called) and went to the dentist to have it checked out. Thanks to the SDMB, I got to look very smart when he told them, “My wife thinks it might be this” and it turned out to be right. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Pessor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pessor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pessor)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-bony-lumps-on-the-floor-of-my-mouth/450957/3 "2008-05-29T00:03:43Z")
[QUOTE=Scarlett67] Possibly a [mandibular torus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torus_mandibularis)? Mr. S had one of these (though we also didn’t know what it was called) and went to the dentist to have it checked out. Thanks to the SDMB, I got to look very smart when he told them, “My wife thinks it might be this” and it turned out to be right. 🆒 [/QUOTE] Absolutely. Thank you wifey Scarlett67. You rock. Does Mr. S grind his teeth? I’ve been confirmed guilty on that one… apparently a leading cause. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-bony-lumps-on-the-floor-of-my-mouth/450957/4 "2008-05-29T00:13:28Z")
I have them and always have AFAIK. I don’t grind my teeth. My dentist told me that people with tori need to take particularly good care of their teeth because it’s very difficult to fit dentures in there. Looks like Wiki agrees. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-bony-lumps-on-the-floor-of-my-mouth/450957/5 "2008-05-29T00:25:14Z")
[QUOTE=Pessor] Absolutely. Thank you wifey Scarlett67. You rock. Does Mr. S grind his teeth? [/QUOTE] Not that we’re aware . . . recently it was suggested that _I_ might grind my teeth (I was having some unexplained jaw pain), but even if I did, I don’t think I could grind them badly enough to cause growths in HIS mouth. 😃 They don’t bother him at all. He just got them checked out when he noticed them because there’s a high incidence of cancer in his family, and Unexplained Growths = Bad. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-bony-lumps-on-the-floor-of-my-mouth/450957/6 "2008-05-29T03:45:45Z")
Holy crap! I have always idly wondered what those were called! Mine are prominent and I do not grind my teeth. They are occaisionally sore, however. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Cymbeline](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_cymbeline/32/9244_2.png) [@Green\_Cymbeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Cymbeline)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-bony-lumps-on-the-floor-of-my-mouth/450957/7 "2008-05-29T05:35:47Z")
I have these too. I am pretty sure I don’t grind my teeth. I didn’t realize that not everyone had them Weird! ---
**Author:** ![Merkwurdigliebe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-bony-lumps-on-the-floor-of-my-mouth/450957/8 "2008-05-29T06:21:53Z")
Oh GOD! FREAKS! Seriously, what is the deal though? I looked at the pic in Wikipedia and I can’t seem to find anything in my mouth that’s similar. I’ve only got two little tiny pellet sized thingies right at the base of my tongue but they certainly couldn’t be described as bony. ---
**Author:** ![Internut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5daacb/32.png) [@Internut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Internut)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-bony-lumps-on-the-floor-of-my-mouth/450957/9 "2008-05-29T08:05:31Z")
Well… Thanks a lot freaks… I have to work in the morning and you got me hooked into a long line of “all things freakish” wikipedia articles… starting with the mouth and going… well… you just don’t want to know. AND I HAVE TO WORK TOMORROW.