scar tissue after oral mucocele excision

I had a fairly large oral mucocele inside my lower lip excised almost 3 weeks ago.  I went to an ENT/facial plastics surgeon who is the section head for this department at the Cleveland Clinic. i.e.  I would think he would know what he was doing. I did not feel comfortable with the only oral surgeon on my medical plan (I don't have dental insurance), so was seeking another type of surgeon when I found the doctor I went to.  He had offered me two options: marsupilization which he stated would not leave scar tissue, but had a 30 percent recurrence rate, or total excision where there it would be unlikely to recur, but would leave some ropey scar tissue.  I thought it would be a small band of scar tissue that would just feel weird to my tongue.  I went back and forth, but because of my demanding type of work (I am a licensed massage therapist), my financial situation and the fact that my insurance deductible begins again in January, I opted for total excision.  I now have what seems to me to be an abnormal amount of scar tissue.  It is incredibly ropey and covers as much or more area as the mucocele.  My lip still has a swollen area on the left, which the doctor said would resolve as the lip remodeled but could take a couple of months.  But, I feel constant pulling and tugging on my lip no matter how I move my mouth, it hurts to smile and laugh, the bump (swollen area) on my actual lip is noticible when I smile, and it just feels like I have a mouthful of pebbles or something.  It is a horrible feeling. Is there anything that will help the scar tissue resolve or soften, and if it doesn't, is there anything I can do?  If I had any idea how horrible this would feel, I would have opted for the marsupialization in a hearbeat.  I also had something pop up through the incison line,that at first looked like a blood blister, then got bigger and looked like possibly another mucocele last week, whick burst that night, so I don't know. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Howard Rosenberg, MD]

Biologically, scar tissue is its most disorganized and thickest at four weeks post injury.  So it is understandable that the scar tissue within the mucous membrane tissue of your lip is at its worst at this time.  There is no specific treatment that will hasten this process.  I expect that over the next three or four months, the scarring will decrease significantly.