There are numerous different lesions that can occur in the oral cavity and these often require different types of treatment. The great majority of lesions that are discovered by you or your dentist at a routine examination are harmless. It is our goal to identify the harmless ones, that may or may not require further treatment, but most importantly to pick the lesions that would have the potential for malignant growth early and remove them.
In case of the occurrence of lesions in the mouth there is always a question about the nature of the lesion, ie “Could this lesion be bad and turn into cancer?” That is a natural concern that arises if you discover anything which was not there before. The most important issue is to identify lesions that may turn into cancer early and remove them, as long as it is easy. If these lesions are discovered early and removed surgically, the treatment is complete.
If you find anything new or different, see your dentist or GP to assess. In case this can not be clearly identified as harmless, they will refer you on to make a biopsy – which means to take a sample for histological examination by the pathologist. This finally gives us a diagnosis and shows, if a lesion is possibly only inflammation, a benign growth or having potential for malignant growth like cancer. If possible we would take out the lesion completely, so that there is no further treatment required.
This lesion turned out to be a leukoplakia without any malignant growth. With removal the treatment was completed. If it would have stayed, it could have turned into something bad at some stage. All lesions different from normal tissues usually have a higher risk for development of malignant growth than the normal tissues in that area.
Therefore it is important that you see your dentist or GP if you find a lesion that is new and does not go away within 6 weeks.