What is this small lump on my jaw?

There are many aspects of human health that people tend to overlook. For example, health problems of the facial jaw have become more common in recent years. Problems with the jaw can have a great impact on the body and make people feel painful. For example, the symptom of a small lump on the jaw is very common. What is a small lump on the jaw? Let’s take a look at the explanation below, I hope everyone can understand it.

A small lump on the lower jaw is a manifestation of a sublingual gland cyst. This disease is relatively rare in extraoral clinical practice, and some patients have a history of waxing and waning. Intraoral examination revealed no abnormal protrusions at the floor of the mouth. Puncture can extract a viscous liquid like egg white. On the basis of ultrasound diagnosis, local puncture of the cyst reveals egg white-like viscous filamentous cystic fluid, which can serve as an important basis for diagnosis. In some difficult cases, typical mucus cannot be aspirated before surgery, and there are atypical inflammatory manifestations locally.

Sublingual gland cyst is an extravasation cyst. Cystic fluid accumulates in the submandibular area. When the cystic fluid accumulates for a long time, the surrounding tissue absorbs part of the cystic fluid, causing the cystic fluid to concentrate, inflammatory wrappings to appear, and surrounding lymph nodes to swell. Local puncture is not easy to extract and the CT value is high. The clinical manifestation is a mass in the submandibular area. In this case, the submandibular mass had a history of waxing and waning, a long medical history, clear boundaries, a hard texture, was movable, and tender.

Both CT and color Doppler ultrasound showed a cystic-solid mass in the right submandibular area and multiple enlarged lymph nodes in the submental and submandibular areas. The medical history and clinical manifestations are atypical. The clinical diagnosis will first consider lymphadenitis, and then observe after anti-inflammatory treatment.

In the preoperative examination, B-ultrasound and CT examination were used in this case. Ultrasound examination is a non-invasive examination and has certain significance for the qualitative and volumetric measurement of cysts, but it lacks specificity. Lymphatic vascular malformations, branchial cleft cysts, dermoid cysts, etc. all have their own characteristic cystic fluid, and puncture and aspiration of mucus can usually distinguish them from the above diseases.

It is also difficult to make a correct diagnosis in cases where the patient cannot cooperate with the puncture examination before surgery. CT scans are not satisfactory in showing soft tissue lesions at the floor of the mouth, which can easily lead to misdiagnosis. The typical CT finding is a watery fluid-filled area associated with the sublingual gland via the posterior edge of the mylohyoid muscle. However, during CT examination, the density is different due to the difference in the cyst contents. When the cyst contains less mucus protein or cholesterol, the density is lower and the cyst wall is thinner; when the mucus or gelatin content is higher or there is infection, the density is isodense or high.