Hi,

I was wondering if anyone could help me out with some information.

My sister has been diagnosed with a tumor on/in her soft pallete. She has had a biopsy the results of which have been looked at by 2 seperate labs and both times the results have come back inconclusive. Her doctor has said they just can't tell if it's malignant or not.

He is also saying that it must be removed along with her soft pallete. She is going back to the hospital on Tuesday for some blood tests and to have an impression of her mouth taken so they can make some sort of plate that she will need to wear in her mouth.

I was wondering if there is any one on here who has any information about the removal of the soft pallette?

Thanks in advance.

Hello Spencer

Sorry to hear about your sister. If treated early or it proves to be a non-maglignant lesion, the outcome can be good. Removal of a lesion in the soft palate can leave a defect if the size of the defect is such that it can't be closed/repaired by a tissue flap surgically. The defect can affect speech and swallowing by letting air/food/drink escaping into the nose during speech/eating/drinking. A palatal prosthesis is a plate that is worn in the roof of the mouth to cover the defect and create a seal to allow better speech and swallowing. More information in this previous posting.

Let us know how your sister gets on. Give her our best wishes, we will be here to help where we can.

Best wishes
Vinod

Hi,

Thank you very much for your reply.

From what you said I am gathering that the bigger the defect in the soft palate after surgery the more problems there will be with eating and drinking.... is this correct?

Many thanks.

I was diagnosed with a malignant tumor of the soft palette when I was only 2 years old. I had my soft palette removed and I wear a retiner-like mouthpiece which helps me to speak and swallow/eat normally.

Hello Diana

It is great to know you are able to eat and speak normally. In addition to the aggressive chemotherapy you had, did you also need surgery (hence the defect that needs the plate)? Did the chemotherapy affect the growth of your permanent teeth (as radiotherapy does - resulting in teeth with short roots)?.

Thanks for joining the group - your experiences will helpful to Georgia who had a mouth cancer when she was only 7 last year.

Best wishes
Vinod

Hello Vinod,

Sorry I wasn't able to reply sooner, my computer crashed and I lost this link.

As far as I know I do not have problems with my adult teeth. I did not have radiotherapy, but did have aggressive chemo for 2 years and several surgeries to remove my cancer, soft palette and surrounding tissues. The cancer did spread to my lymph nods.

Other than having a slighly nasal sounding voice, my speach is perfectly normal with the aide of my retainer (optorator? is what I believe it is officially called). Several years ago I went to UCLA's School of Dentistry and had a new one made, since my older I had made when I was 8 and quickly deteriorating.

I'm happy to say that I am now 31, married with two children and other than a few bad memories and a few surgery scars, am pretty normal. I do wish there was some sort of reconstructive surgery available so I would no longer have to deal with my mouthpiece.

I had a in-situ cancer of the soft pallete and the operation called for excision of the site with tongue flap. During the time for the tongue flap the team detected some cells in the tongue requiring removal and ceasing the tongue flap. the question remained on what to cover site and the team looked at uvula and used that to suture in place and now cancer free after 15 years.