Hi Chloe.  Welcome to the forum.

Sorry to hear you're in this situation, but most mouth lumps turn out to be harmless. I discovered a lump on my lower jaw inside my mouth last Xmas.  The dentist checked it out and said was something called a Torus  - which is Latin for Bony Lump.  It's completely harmless.  I also have another harmless lump inside my cheek, caused by friction against the teeth.  Again it's harmless.

I haven't had a referral for a mouth problem but a couple of years ago I had a referral for a persistent sore throat.  At the first meeting with the specialist, he took a medical history, looked inside my mouth, and then put a small endoscope up my nose and had a look around.  At one point he looked down at my vocal cords and watched them working while I spoke.  It wasn't painful or uncomfortable. He then referred me for an MRI, which found nothing wrong.  Then I was referred for a Panendoscopy under general anaesthetic.  That also found nothing wrong.  As you can imagine, I did get pretty scared at times by all this, but in the end no cancer was found.  Of all these tests, the MRI was the worst! 

Incidentally, if anyone finds an unexplained mouth lesion then you might find it better (and possibly quicker) to see your dentist rather than your doctor.  Dentists are far more familiar with the mouth than doctors, and if necessary they can refer you to a specialist for rapid evaluation and any treatment. 

Hi Chloe.  Welcome to the forum.

Sorry to hear you're in this situation, but most mouth lumps turn out to be harmless. I discovered a lump on my lower jaw inside my mouth last Xmas.  The dentist checked it out and said was something called a Torus  - which is Latin for Bony Lump.  It's completely harmless.  I also have another harmless lump inside my cheek, caused by friction against the teeth.  Again it's harmless.

I haven't had a referral for a mouth problem but a couple of years ago I had a referral for a persistent sore throat.  At the first meeting with the specialist, he took a medical history, looked inside my mouth, and then put a small endoscope up my nose and had a look around.  At one point he looked down at my vocal cords and watched them working while I spoke.  It wasn't painful or uncomfortable. He then referred me for an MRI, which found nothing wrong.  Then I was referred for a Panendoscopy under general anaesthetic.  That also found nothing wrong.  As you can imagine, I did get pretty scared at times by all this, but in the end no cancer was found.  Of all these tests, the MRI was the worst! 

Incidentally, if anyone finds an unexplained mouth lesion then you might find it better (and possibly quicker) to see your dentist rather than your doctor.  Dentists are far more familiar with the mouth than doctors, and if necessary they can refer you to a specialist for rapid evaluation and any treatment. 

Good evening.

Thank you for taking the time to reply with all of that information. It's nice that there are lots of other possibilites for what this could be. Sadly due to Covid i haven't been able to see a doctor in person for a little while as I am someone who was told to shield, so the doctor only saw the small clear lump on a picture that was quite awkward to take as its at the back of my mouth!

I suppose as this is the first time i'm dealing with something like this and I suffer from health anxiety as I have quite a lot of unrelated health issues as well it makes the worrying that much worse! Your reponse has eased some of the worries though as I haven't managed to find anything else the pain and lump could be apart from the possible mouth cancer and my doctor didn't give any other conclusion on what it could be but only stated it isn't an ulcer and could possibly be mouth cancer. So thank you very much. 

I was supposed to have a denist appointment just a few days ago but had to cancel it due to a household member coming down with covid symptoms (all clear though!) so i'll mention it to her when i manage to get an appointment again. 

Thank you for your response, it is greatly appreciated. 

Hi Chloe.

Something I forgot to mention..  Mouth cancer is categorised as "Head and Neck" cancer.  There are no specific statistics for mouth cancer, but there are for Head and Neck cancers.  The incidence of H&N cancers for people aged 23 is in the region of 1 in 100,000 per year, which makes it highly unusual.

GPs are trained to refer for quick evaluation anything which is even vaguely suspicious, but given your age, the chance that this is mouth cancer is really tiny.  Of course, it is quite possible that the consultant will want to go through the motions and give you a battery of tests just to be 100% certain, so don't panic if these tests are mentioned. You may end up having an MRI and a panendoscopy, just like I did.  And it turned out well for me.

Please could you let us know how you get on at the appointment.  Your experiences and feedback allow people like me to write better answers in the future. 

Can I ask what symptoms you had Iam aware this is an old post but Iam suffering with persistent sore throat now 

Hi I know I am not the person you are asking the question to but I have just had a partial glossectomy for tongue cancer. My initial symptoms were sore throat predominantly down one side, the ear on the same side felt full or slightly blocked, occasionally earache, increased saliva on the same side and the most predominant thing was reoccurring ulcer on one side of the tongue which suddenly turned into a small white hard lump that protruded above the surface. Not sure if this helps?

Thank you for your response, Iv had tonsilies strep for like 3 months now and the last case was an ulcer on left tonsil and left side was inflamed and larger than my right side, saw ENT who gave me more antibiotics and steroids and sent me for blood tests and mri. Mri has come back but haven’t had a call yet to discuss as I have a follow up appointment on the 27th that was booked prior to MRI just hoping it’s all ok as Iv been reading on here about symptoms and how blood tests and mri don’t diagnose cancer and biopsy does and most people have been having one tonsil bigger than the other. 

MRI will show if cancer has spread to other organs (I say if, you may get good results and not show to have cancer, I have everything crossed not just fingers for you). But no, MRI can miss it and blood tests wouldn't show cancer either, only anomalies like low red or white count. A CT scan is more reliable but in the first instance it would be biopsy as that is the path I followed. It's frightening, the waiting, I totally understand and it's good to do your research so you are at least a little prepared. Try not to overthink is the best advice I can give at this moment. Hard I know as it's a real thing happening to you. All you can do is wait and try to stay positive even if you are diagnosed with cancer. I trust in every medical person I have interacted with so far, you will be in the best hands and there are so many survivors out there it gives you hope. Good luck and know you're not alone and people care x

Thank you it’s just hard I hate the waiting game I had my mri on my neck with contrast on the 7th and when I called they had my results by the 11th but again secretary wouldn’t give me any indication of what the results are just to wait for appointment assuming surely if something was wrong I would get a phone call but again that’s my wishful thinking to try and think positive I just don’t know how it works as I have never been down this scary route before. Hope you are doing well? Xx

The timing is all normal. From docs referral, to seeing consultant, biopsy, MRI and then finally seeing the head and neck surgeon with the diagnosis it took 3 weeks. Surgery was then planned a week and half after that. Apparently in most cases if there is cancer a few more weeks doesn't make a difference. That sounds harsh but realistically if it is, it's been there for some time most likely and hasn't got to stage 3 or 4. The receptionist can't tell you anything as they aren't medical professionals as such so that's normal too. I know, the waiting game drove me mad at first and I tortured myself googling everything! I'm now waiting for the results of the surgery to see if it's aggressive and have a CT scan next week. If it has spread to the lymphs then more surgery will be required. I realise now waiting is all you can do and try to get on with life in the meantime as normal as you can. It's only 7 days since they removed part of my tongue so healing has a long way to go yet. I'm on a soft diet ie mush! When this is done I'm getting the biggest takeaway ever!! 

Oh that must be painful hopfully the healing process ain’t too tough. I know the waiting is the agony bit and I try not to think about it I mean I have kids to distract me 5 and 2 year olds I have moments where I forgot and then I remember again and then I start to feel a sore throat like I’m sure it’s the anxiety but prior to all this I have never ever looked inside my mouth let alone with a torch. And i have become even more sensitive to every little tingle inside my mouth whether it’s relatable or not. The anxiety is high with the not knowing! I saw my ENT on the 15th June and won’t see him again till the 27th it’s been a painful coming up to  6 weeks of waiting! Oh I hope your results come back positive in that it hasn’t spread and you don’t need anymore surgery and it’s not aggressive. Fingers crossed  

My paranoia before they gave me the diagnosis was sky high! Everything I noticed more and in my head it had to be cancer. OK it was but I think it's perfectly normal to associate every pain/sensation to it because you're in a heightened state of anxiety. Even now I'm thinking 'what's that, has it spread etc' and I have to reign myself in and tell myself to stop it. Once I was diagnosed for the first few days the realisation would creep in every now and then. I wondered if every day I would wake up for the rest of my life thinking is it there. I've accepted it now and I can do this and will do this, I'm not planning on going anywhere yet! It must be awful having this hanging over your head with such young kids. The first thing I thought when I walked out the hospital that day was how am I going to tell the people I care about, how can I not hurt them. Then I thought of what if I never got to see the rest of their lives and they're all adults. To have children that thought must be eating you up. There's nothing I can say that will stop you from agonising. Just love them little tykes and use that as your positivity boost. I'm guessing you might have to go down the biopsy route, I skipped ENT and was routed straight to Maxillofacial. Given that they are taking a while (it's NHS policy once cancer has been potentially predicted they have a 4 week deadline for treatment decision and 6 week in total for treatment to start) they might be thinking yours is not C. Strep throat can go on for a long while from what I understand and cause a lot of issues that aren't necessarily cancerous.