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Urgent referral by dentist

hobbitf33t
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Hi,

I'm 42 and recently took my wonky mouth to a dentist for the first time in many years because of a weird lesion (dentist called it an 'ulcer') inside my cheek. Its been there at least three months, it took that long to get an appointment. He's made an urgent cancer pathway referral because I used to smoke and because of the length of time I've had it. He did say it looks 'similar to the tissue around it' and that it 'doesn't look too bad', but that he has 'a suspicion'. He didn't elaborate and I suppose they're not allowed to really. I have a feeling in my gut that it's going to be bad news. I don't know how I'm going to cope with waiting for the referral appointment; I'm in the middle of writing my masters thesis and I can't concentrate. I'm terrified and I don't have anyone in my life that I can talk to about this kind of thing. I suppose that's why I'm here, I sort of needed to get that off my chest in an environment where people would understand. And of course if anyone has any advice or experience they'd like to share, I'd be grateful for it.

Very best thoughts going out to everyone having a tough time.

Hobbit x

  • Offline

    Hiya. I used to work in a dental environment (wasn't a dentist), and a couple of things i wanted to say.

    1) If you ever have something like this again, go to your gp if the appointment is quicker. Dentists don't treat oral lesions, they're trained to spot them because they work within that vicinity. But so are gps.

    2) All lesions or patches in the oral cavity that last over two weeks get treated as suspicious. If they're not, I'd question the dentist treating you. There's next to no exception to this because most ulcers etc heal or begin to heal within 2 weeks. Most lesions come back as benign. But because the oral cavity contains fast growing cells, they need to be seen to asap after 2 weeks.

  • Offline in reply to ProfBaw

    Hi ProfBaw and thanks for taking the time to reply.

    I actually did go to my GP in the first instance but she didn't think it was anything sinister, so I suppose my rationale behind going to the dentist was to get a second opinion and in my idiotic way I thought a dentist might be more likely to spot something that was 'off'. Next time I'll go back and bother the GP for a follow-up rather than waiting.

    I really appreciate the info re the referral guidelines. I actually got my appointment details through this afternoon so at least I have to wait as long as I'd feared to get things rolling.

  • Offline in reply to hobbitf33t

    *that should have read 'at least I WON'T have to wait ...'

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