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I have a had a 1/4 inch hard spot on the left inside of my tongue near the tip for at least 8 months. Sometime its bigger sometimes smaller. You cant see the lump but can feel it with your finger . About once a month I get a couple of discolorations that look like geographic tonge on the same side of the lump. Also citrus seams to make the lump get bigger temporarily. I just want to make sure it isnt cancer.
Also other lumps temporarily appear when the discolorations occur. It almost looks like I was chewing on the side of my tongue
Optional Information: Person's Gender: Male Person's Age: 33
Welcome, and thank you for putting your trust in me!Because there are a variety of different conditions of varying significance that can present in the manner you describe, identification of your tongue lesion will require more than visual assessment. Granted, the tip of the tongue is not a common site for oral cancer, and your age makes it even less likely. However, there are all manner of serious conditions that can present as a hard nodule in or on the tongue, including a syphilitc chancre, tuberculosis, sarcoidosis, deep mycotic infection, and other lesions-- papillomas, reactive fibromas or pyogenic granuloma, myoblastomas, and a host of others that could fill a pathology textbook-- including something trivial like a keloid or scar from chronic mechanical injury.Your best first step would be to arrange for a diagnostic session with your dentist. If he deems it appropriate, he may choose to refer you to a clinical oral pathologist or an oral surgeon for formal biopsy, which would be a more conclusive way of identification of the lesion and assessing its health impact.Hope this helps...
If it were some kind of cancer wouldnt it have grown some in the last 8 months or become painful or bled? There are no other symptoms other than the 1/4 long hard spot on the front side of the tongue.
Although cancer occasionally grows aggressively and rapidly, some cancers run a more indolent course, and a failure to see conspicuous growth is not in itself sufficient to rule out malignancy or pre-malignancy. Likewise, absence of symptoms is not a useful criterion for distinguishing cancer, because symptoms are typically a very late manifestation of cancer. These are the reasons why a more formal diagnostic assessment is necessary for a reliable determination of malignancy.Hope this helps...
Experience: 35 years experience, member Academy of General Dentistry