Hi everyone, I wondered if you could put my mind at rest for me. I have lots of lumps at the back of my tongue, which I think is normal, but recently I've had one come up that seems to be more pronounced than the others. If I stick my tongue right out,it's on the part where my tongue joins the side of my throat. It's pink in colour, and it's irritating me as I can feel it back there all the time. Could this just be a swollen gland of some type?

Hi Lydia

Some lumps seen at the back of the tongue are often part of the normal scenery.There are large bumps on the top surface of the back of the tongue called circumvallate papillae located along the "circumvallate line" and contain taste buds that confer the sense of sour and bitter to the back of the tongue. A lingual tonsil can also be quite prominent and are mistaken by patients for cancerous growths . Have look at the links given in this reply to a similar question.

Best wishes
Vinod

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Dr Vinod K Joshi,

Hi again Dr Vishnod, you must be getting used to my worrying now! Thanks for the info, I've read though and I'm still not entirely sure whether it's normal or not. There seems to be a collection of little lumps between the join of my tongue and back of my gums. I'm hoping it's nothing to worry about, because it's rather irritating me, I keep trying to swallow it. Maybe it's an enlarged tonsillar tissue, although I have no tonsils, but I assume tissue gets left. I do have some lymph glands up in my neck too. I always seem to have them though...I should go to my gp I know...

Hi Lydia

We both need to get some sleep! :lol:

To set your mind to rest, you will have to see your GP or dentist and stick out your tongue at them!

Let us know what they say.

Best wishes
Vinod :coffee:

Well once again, I am suffering from the lump in the back of my throat syndrome...I didn't think much about them until I opened my mouth and I only have them at the back of my tongue kinda of goin down my throat.My throat is kinda of swollen and I feel kinda of achy (like i could be gettin a cold) Could someone please let me know what's going on? Thanks..HELP

Im yet another one with lumpy tongue syndrome - I was hoping Dr Joshi could advise me too!
At the back of my tongue behind what I called the shark splits (my not so technical name for the splits at the back of my tongue that look a little like those on the sides of sharks) I have a row of three sort of bobbles - I guess they are something like papilla on the side of the tongue? The one nearest the front is sort of bigger than the others and sticks out, it feels like there is a very tiny lump in it, it kind of looks almost yellow/white in some lights flesh coloured in other. If I push it flat you dont notice it. Any idea what it could be?

Hello Kiara2 and terrified

There are normal lumps at the back of the tongue like lingual tonsils and circumvallate papillae. . These are not necessarrily symmetrical and so one can look larger than another. It is best for you to see your dentist to confirm this for your own reassuarance. Hope that helps.

Best wishes
Vinod

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Dr Vinod K Joshi,

Thanks Dr Joshi for your speedy reply

Ok, I know most everyone has a Circumvallate line. Recently, I started feeling like I had a lump in my throat and it won't clear. Are the Circumvallate bumps most likely irritated and enlarged. What causes them to suddenly become enlarged. Sickness, irritation, Listerine? How to I get them back to normal, meaning to where I don't feel like I have something caught in my throat anymore? Thanks!

Going off the previous posts. I too have a lump on the side of my throat where the side of my mouth meets my tongue. The skin connecting them. I have went to 2 doctors,a dentist and an oral surgion who all have said it was due to an impacted tooth. I have had the wisdom teeth removed but I still have raised bumps on the side of my tongue one of them is white. I still have the lump where my skin meets my tongue from teh side of my mouth and a still have a swollen gland on that side of my jaw. I had the surgery about a week and a half ago. Should I go see somebody else Dr Joshi? I'm really concerned please help.

Hello cy

If the lump was a cancer, I would have expected the oral surgeon to have picked it up. It is only about a week and a half after your wisdom teeth were removed so there will still be some swelling and lymph node enlargement. This should resolve over the next two weeks. If it still bothers you, go back to the oral surgeon and ask directly about your concern so that your fear can be answered satisfactorily.

Let us know how you get on.

Best wishes
Vinod

If you have a had a swollen gland for 3 weeks or more you must get a hospital consultant to have a look. Don't get fobbed off!!!
My swollen gland was cancerous!

good luck - Tony K

Thanks for your reply Dr Joshi. I feel slightly better now. The main symptom I have always had was a swollen lymph node. I have had these symptoms for about 4 - 5 weeks now. Bascially what happend was it swelled up real bad in 1 day, so much that it was hard for me to eat. I went to the doc and he prescribed me augmentin. It quickly went down till where it dosent hurt but it still feels enlarged. It feels mobile, beucase I can move it back and fowards across the side of my chin. From what I've read if you gland becomes swollen very quickly like it did for me more than likly it isn't cancerous. But I haven't read how long it actually took to go down. The oral surgion did say I had a lot of infection around my wisdom tooth. I have called the doc and spoke with a nurse that put me on another round of clendenmiason. Just wanted to post to get a secound opnion. Tony did you have symptoms similir to mine? Did you have a impacted wisdom tooth?

Cy,

I think it's important to keep going back to your doctor, until either the problem is resolved, or you are referred to a consultant. My tonsil was swollen and infected, and I had a few courses of antibiotics, which cured the infection temporarily, but some swelling remained. After I was referred the swelling was found to be cancerous, but I don't blame my GP for not spotting this imediately. The majority of swollen tonsils are due to an infection, and it was only when antibiotics were not effective that other reasons for the swelling were considered.

Your doctor doesn't know whether you have recovered or not, unless you go to see them, if you don't go back then they will assume that the treatment worked and you are fully recovered. So don't be afraid to go back to your doctor if you are still having problems.

Any sort of treatment to the head and neck area can take a long time to heal, almost one year on from my treatment I am noticing improvements and a reduction in the swelling around my neck.

Hi Cy,
I have had problems with my wisdom teeth but that was not related to my cancer.
My lymph gland, rhs top of jaw just behind right ear.
I had a very severe case of tonsilitis - 2 weeks later my gland swelled up very quickly (over a day or two-because of this I thought that it couldn't be cancer). I felt feverish and extremely weak.

My gland had reacted very strongly to cancer cells.

My symptoms of weakness went away over the next 3/4 weeks. I had loads of blood tests,powerful antibiotics, endoscopic searches of my sinuses/throat/voice box. All this in the first couple of weeks of the swollen gland's appearance.
2 months later I had an ultrasound scan which - I was told- showed an enlarged lymph node - nothing else. My lymph gland was swollen all the time for 5 and a half months.

Six months after my first symptoms I was undergoing 7 hrs of surgery (radical neck dissection and tonsilectomy). My cancer was advanced and had burst out of 2 lymph glands.
I felt very ill by this stage, not surprisingly. I knew it was advanced because of the time scale. The stress was killing me too!

Only a biopsy will show you for sure what is the matter. Maybe a CT/PET scan will show it too.

Six months! - it's hard to believe isn't it?
I am surprisingly well now all things considered. At the end of December I will celebrate being clear for 2 years.

good luck to you Cy - Tony K