A tiny mucocele: Worth getting it removed?
Hey everyone, I was a lurker on this forum in November when I found out from this site that the hideous lump topped with a fluid-filled clear sack on my lower lip was a mucocele. Thanks to this website, I had it removed in January. The recovery time took about a grueling month. It was terrible three and a half months: having the mucocele, keeping it there and hoping it would go away, waiting until I could get it removed, and having it removed and getting back to normal. Things are fine now, there's scar tissue and some numbness from the scar, but I'm ok with it.
So, it's almost May, and I'm pretty sure I have another ****ing mucocele! It's located underneath the scar lump from the previous one, but the thing is that it's tiny. I have no idea how I got it, because the last one I got while I accidentally bit on my lip hard in the same location on two different days. I'm hoping it will go away, but as I have learned from this forum, these buggers don't. And worse, they sometimes get bigger.
Should I get it removed? It's tiny, like the size of the tip of a pen, and it didn't come with a lump, just a clear fluid-filled sack. Is it worth another approx. $600 and a month of recovery (perhaps less since it's small) to get it out?
I have a routine dentist appointment coming up next month, and I'm hoping to bring it up to her. In a month I'm sure I can see if it'll get bigger or, wishful thinking, go away. And at the appointment she can give me a referral...? A good thing about it is since I got the mucocele removed earlier this year, it'll hopefully be cheaper since of the insurance deductible deal. I'll be in my last year of college, so I should take advantage of my parents insurance while I still can. But I hate to make my parents help me out on that, and I have little money. And I don't know if I can go through the ordeal again, with the surgery and the recovery.
Sorry this was long winded and filled with unnecessary information! I hope that my experience can help some people.
So if anyone bothered to read this, let me know what you think! Should I get it removed? Do you think it'll get bigger? Or should I leave it alone? What if I get new mucoceles in the process? Help! Thank you!
Hi, I am going to get my small mucocele removed tomorrow. It's been there about four months and gets bigger when I bite it and smaller when I leave it alone, but it has not gone away on its own and it may not be a mucocele, according to my dentist. He referred me to an oral surgeon. I am kind of scared that it may be cancerous. I have read that sometimes they do come back in the same spot. I haven't been through the ordeal of surgery like you have, but I can't imagine living with this thing any longer. I am constantly aware it is there, and keep messing with it, even when I know I shouldn't. It sounds like your surgery was terrible and that you don't want to go through it again, but it wouldn't be as bad for a smaller one. They do get bigger and being on the lower lip, they are constantly irritating. Just some thoughts on the matter. Was the surgery awful?
Linda
The surgery itself wasn't too bad. It didn't hurt much, but it was the parts after that was terrible. The little things like smiling were difficult to do. My lip got infected, so I had to make extra appointments and take some antibiotics. The stitches were very noticeable, and after the third week some stitches were still there and it looked like my lip had some horrible coldsore/scab thing. The whole thing was awful.
I hope all went well for you, lindad530! It's best to get rid of the mucocele in the end.
The tiny mucocele I had a while back went away, fortunately. But now I'm back on the boards with another mucocele that I got today some how. It's kind of big, but perhaps it will go away like some. I hope it does, since I'm uninsured now after graduating from college. Ugh, mucocele removals are such a waste of money, it's really unfair.
Good luck to everyone, all of you mucocele-sufferers.
