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Oral Biopsy

Makkie
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Dear members, 

I hope you are all well.

I have a white patch under my tongue on the right side which is not scrappable. Due to this, my GP referred me as I also had a black spot on my tongue which has disappeared prior to my biopsy appointment. 

I had my oral biopsy today and they used a scalpel to take a small sample tissue. The medical team applied 4 dissolvable stitches to the area. At the moment, it’s been 4 hours+ and my tongue seems slightly numb, it seems the local anaesthesia is wearing off now.

For those of you that have had an oral biopsy, please could you share your recovery time and any special cautions I should take? I would appreciate it very much.

I am now waiting for results (2 weeks)

Thank you   

  • Hi Makkie and welcome to the forum.

    How have you been getting on since you had your oral biopsy?

    I hope you're not in too much pain and your recovery is going well but if you have any questions or concerns, make sure you get in touch with your GP and/or medical team as they'll be in the best position to advise.

    Hopefully you will receive some support and advice from some of our members soon, but if you'd like to discuss this further with one of our nurses, you can contact them on 0808 800 4040, Monday - Friday between 9a.m - 5p.m or make a new post about this in their area of the forum called ask the nurses. They're very insightful and will do all that they can to help.

    We're thinking of you Makkie and will have our fingers crossed you receive good news in two weeks time.

    Kind regards,

    Steph, Cancer Chat Moderator

  • Offline

    Hi all,

    I wanted to provide an update, it turned out to be cancer.

    I have had my surgery a month after my biopsy and they removed the cancerous tissue.

    However, I am now worried as the report shows that I had moderate dysplasia on my tongue. The consultant said they'd monitor this, however, can this not turn into cancer? 

    Any thoughts would be appreciated, thank you!

  • Offline in reply to Makkie

    I worked in a dental setting for years, but wasn't a dentist. Yes, it can be a precursor to cancer, but it's common for them to take a watch and wait approach. They tend to act on it when or if it progresses to severe dysplasia because treating your tongue can impact on your day to day function, so they prefer you to keep what you have until it's absolutely necessary. I wouldn't fret about it, because they're monitoring it. Dysplasia doesn't always turn into cancer.

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