Oral lichen planus biopsy questions.

Skin, nail and hair health
1

Hi all,

New to the forum and need a few pointers if possible.I am a 40 year old male who has had CFS/ME 16 years and not the best of health but after last trip to dentist got sent for a biopsy of two white patched areas at each edge.

Biopsy went well apart from the needles to numb it hurt a fair bit.Biopsy done and 5 desolvable stitches put in.

Problem is its been a week now and the swelling hasnt gone down and not been able to touch solid food.Tried a piece of bread and butter and was so painful trying to eat it that i had to spit it out so been on cold custard and clear soups all week and lost 7lbs so far.Just wondering how long the swelling and pain may last because on the sheet they gave post op said 2-3 days swelling and 4-5 for bruising but thats way wrong.Have seen some info online saying 1-2 weeks but just wondered how others got on.Not even able to talk very well without alot of pain.

Also the surgeon said he found it strange that the large area of white was where the tongue touched two teeth that had very large fillings in them and on the other side the smaller patch was where the tongue touched one normal sized filling.Is there any known connection between OPL and fillings?

Many thanks for any input,

Best wishes to all,

Jon

2

Hi

I had same procedure 2 years ago. Have to say that the discomfort only lasted a couple of days. Maybe, I was lucky, but it sounds like yours has a problem, maybe an infection or something. No harm going to your GP to have it checked. As far as I know, Planar Lichens is idiomatic...i.e. they are unable to say what causes it...unknown source, but they do the biopsy to confirm its not something serious.

3

Many thanks Gerry for your reply,very much appreciated.I know its been a while but can you remember how many stitches you had.Im wondering if it is because i hade a fairly large area removed (5 stitches) so may take longer than some who had one 1 or 2 stitches?Just kind of shooting in the dark a little.

4

Not absolutely sure, but I think it was 3 or 4 stitches on each side. I had no problems with eating except being careful for a couple of days. I don't remember the needle hurting either, like you described, and I'm squeemish with needles. Hopefully, yours will settle down, but if not, I'd have someone look at it just to be sure. Sometimes a rinse with warm salted water can speed up the healing. It works as a disinfectant.

5

Thanks again Gerry,yeah i got a bad feeling about it.I actually just took a couple of pics and emailed them to a friend and they said that it does NOT look normal at all.Been doing the saltwater thing since day one so think ill nip to doctors and get them to check it out.Cheers Gerry.

6

Jon:

Absolutely OLP is related to fillings! I've read it many times on the web. The solution is apparently to get the fillings redone but not with metal (normal grey stuff or gold) but with something 'inert' - I'm not a dentist but there must be some kind of porcelain paste?

EM

7

Thanks so much folks,as always a fantastic response.Thanks so much for taking the time to leave the responses.....and a very merry xmas to you both.