We have all done it once or twice and its super painful! Biting the inside of your cheeks or lips can be very irritating. The problem with it is that you’ll probably keep biting it again and again!
Repeated trauma from biting can result in enlargement of the soft tissues in your mouth. Now there are two types of lumps which you may develop. One is on the inside of your cheeks and feels firm, while the other is usually on the inside of your lower lip and appears like a balloon filled with liquid that can pop but will definitely come back. So what are these lumps?
Traumatic Fibroma
A traumatic fibroma is essentially excess scar tissue that forms in response of repeated trauma such as from biting. They can commonly occur on the cheeks, lips or tongue. Think of it as a callous but its inside your mouth. If left alone, they can slowly grow from repeated biting trauma to very large sizes. It is not a good idea to leave these alone as they can continue to grow and become more prone to biting trauma. Removing them is quick and painless. After numbing the area with local anesthesia, the lump is removed and sent to the lab for analysis to ensure that there was nothing abnormal in the tissue. This is called a biopsy and is standard procedure and not a cause for alarm. The area will heal quickly and gets replaced with normal tissue. The chance of recurrence is low as long as you don’t traumatize it again.
Mucocele
This is another lump you may see in your mouth and it typically appears on the inside of your lips. It may feel squishy and generally looks like a balloon filled with water. It may pop and appear like its gone, but will definitely come back again and again and again until it is addressed. A mucocele is a pseudo-cyst, meaning it is not a true cyst. There are minor salivary glands inside the lower lip and if they get damaged from trauma such as lip biting or aggressive brushing, they may spill their saliva into the tissues making it balloon out. If you pop this balloon, it looks like it went away, but the damaged salivary gland is still there and the entire process will continue resulting in a new lump. It is important that these mucoceles are removed to avoid injury to the surrounding tissues. Removing small lesions is always easier and less risky in comparison to large lesions. Removing them is again quite simple and usually done under local anesthesia in about 20 minutes. Recovery is easy but you must remember not to bite your lips again! The removed tissues are again submitted to the lab as protocol to examine them under a microscope.
If you've had a lump for a while that you always seem to be biting, see us for an examination. With a simple procedure, we may be able to remove that irritation once and for all. Please contact our clinic at 905-553-6725 to book your consultation.
