massive lump in mouth after whilst eating.

In the last eight years I've had six mucoceles. Three have been surgically removed, one of which came back within three weeks from the operation date.

Two years ago I had what I thought was my worst one to date, a typical bottom lip one that not only stopped me from talking properly, it also affected the way I ate, and was VERY painful, contrary to all the mucocele medical information that I have read. This instance actually happened during my sleep, I remember biting my lip extremely hard and upon waking I knew something was up and upon looking in the mirror I knew it was a mucocele. I ended up having to pierce it on a daily basis to reduce its size and allow half decent use of my mouth. It was a real drag! I had that one removed via surgery, after five months waiting on the NHS (UK health scheme). It never returned, thankfully.

Last year, Jan 09, I got yet another mucocele on the opposite side of my bottom lip, again from a night time biting incident. It wasn't as bad as the last one, about half the size of a pea. The major difference this time was that I reluctantly left it alone! Three months later it was still there, so I booked in to the maxillo facial clinic to get it checked out. Five months later, and two weeks before my operation date it completely cleared and has not come back.

In October 09, whilst eating I accidentally bit the inside of my left cheek, another mucocele, however this one way quite small again, less than the size of a pea. It was in an area that didn't affect me in any way at all, so I left it. In December 09 whilst drinking a milkshake I felt a pop inside my mouth and in an instant felt the mucocele double in size, which was a really freaky experience! After checking in the mirror the mucocele was now about the size of a small grape. I was really pissed off... At that point I was extremely tempted to lance it, but what stopped me was the appearance of what looked like a vein running thought it. So I left it just to be on the safe side. I stuck it out with this huge lump in my mouth until January this year, at which point it had gotten quite hard and was affecting my eating and speech to a degree. I booked myself into the maxillo facial clinic at the end of January.

Fast forward to two days ago (Saturday Feb 13th). Whilst at work, eating (lol yeah, I do eat a lot) I got a blood lump on the inside of my cheek (which wasn't from biting, it just happened in an instant again), on the same side as the mucocele. Whilst feeling with my tongue I realised the mucocele had gotten much, much, smaller. I checked in the mirror as soon as I could and it had almost disappeared completely. I left the blood blister intact too as it was not bothersome.

Today, Mon 15th both the blood blister and the mucocele have gone, 100%! So this last instance took almost six months to completely sort itself out!

After many hours reading over the last few years my own personal conclusion is that its best to simply leave a mucocele intact when one occurs. Also you should refrain from taking any medical information you may read on the internet to heart regarding the time lines of mucocele existence (ie to appear and disappear in X amount of time). The only thing I am positive about that is noted in medical texts is that mucoceles occur after some kind of trauma to the lip, hence why they often appear on the bottom lip and inside the cheeks.

After taking that into consideration, the term 'prevention is better than cure' springs to mind. So to combat my last episode I looked at how I slept and ate! I started by changing the way I ate by chewing more slowly and being 101% more aware of what I was doing whilst eating. (on a side note I have good straight teeth, so it wasn't as if the problem was due to them being misaligned and possibly catching tissue). Since I have payed more attention to the way I eat I can honestly, hand on heart, say that I have not once bitten the inside of my mouth whilst eating! With regards to sleeping, I changed this quite dramatically. I always for as long as I remember have slept on either side with my face fully on the pillow, so as my cheek would be pushing into my teeth. (I often wondered why I had huge white ridges (the best way I can describe them) on the insides of my mouth). So I started to train my self to sleep either on my back, head facing up and cheeks completely off the pillow, or on my front face down but with the pillow situated so that it was not touching my cheeks. I started to sleep this way back in Dec 09 and although I cannot say for sure it has helped, as far as I'm aware I have not had any night time biting incidences I can recall. I also no longer have those white ridges in my mouth.

Some food for thought?!

Smirnofred :D

(mucocele free as of 15 February 2010)