About Eric P. Wilkinson, MD Expertise I am a board-certified otolaryngologist with additional subspecialty training in otology, neurotology, and skull base surgery. This is the subspecialty of otolaryngology that involves the ear, hearing, balance organs, the facial nerve, and surgery of the skull base including surgery for acoustic neuroma and other benign and malignant tumors of the base of the skull.
Experience Medical school, residency in otolaryngology, fellowship in otology/neurotology/skull base surgery
Organizations American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery North American Skull Base Society American Neurotology Society
Publications Laryngoscope Otology and Neurotology
Education/Credentials MD Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA 2001 Otolaryngology Residency, University of Iowa Department of Otolaryngology, Iowa City, IA Otology/Neurotology Fellowship, House Ear Clinic, Los Angeles, CA
Expert: Eric P. Wilkinson, MD Date: 7/17/2007 Subject: Minor Salivary Gland question
Question Dr. Wilkinson, thank you for taking the time to read my question. I hope you will be able to help me. Toward the beginning of this year, I had some sort of virus that caused all sorts of upper respiratory problems. About the fifth day, I woke up with with a swelling in the roof of my mouth (hard palate) just left of the central ridge. It was a fairly large swelling, about the size of a dime. After a couple of days it mostly went away but there was one particular spot that remained swollen. I waited another week and when it didn't go away I went to see an ENT. He said it was probably an inflamed salivary gland and should go away in a couple of weeks. I waited a few weeks longer and didn't notice much change so I went back to the ENT and he did a biopsy of the area. He took several pieces using this thing sort of like a hole punch, and left a fairly good size hole in the roof of my mouth. I had the biopsy around the first of April. The biopsy came back with inflamed salivary gland tissue as the suspected. The area healed up fairly well over the next couple of weeks, and then it swelled up again. Since about mid-april, I have had a pea-sized hard knot in the spot they biopsied. I waited until about mid June before I went back to the ENT to get his opinion on it. He said it was probably still just inflamed salivary gland, and that I had two options. I could leave it alone or he could excise it, but he couldn't guarantee that it wouldn't come back even after he did that. To be honest, I am afraid of something like this. Having a lump there under the skin worries me. Could it still be inflamed salivary gland? Why wouldn't this knot go away after over three months if it was inflamed tissue? Can inflamed salivary gland tissue lead to the formation of a malignant tumor? I just want a second opinion on this. Thanks for any help you can offer.
Answer It sounds like a minor salivary gland, of which there are hundreds in the oral cavity. The only way to truly know what it is would be a biopsy, but inflamed salivary tissue itself typically doesn't lead to malignant change--there usually is another inciting factor.
