Around April or May of last year I noticed a little bump just inside my nose. Since I've occasionally gotten small pimples just inside my nose I attempted to bust it. I actually got a little "white stuff", like one would get from a pimple, out of it but it was too painful to continue messing with. I left it alone after putting a cotton ball soaked with alcohol on it in the hopes that would dry it out and go away.
Well, the place got a little scab on it that I would scratch the top off of only for it to grow back overnight. Anyway, at some point the scabbing stopped, I forgot all about little bump and paid no attention to it anymore. Then a few months later, around Christmas, I noticed that I had a little larger bump under the skin on the inside of my nose, there was no "head" on it, as one would see on a pimple...it didn't hurt...it wasn't anything anyone would notice, other than me whilst plucking chin hairs in a magnifying mirror. Well, I ignored THAT too...thinking the pimple from months back had just left a lump or something under the skin. Well...here it is May...almost a year later and that lump has grown. It's now clearly visible from inside my mouth. If I lift my upper lip there it is, right over my right front tooth. About the size of the 1st section of my thumb altogether when I put two fingers on it to try and determine its size.
I went to an ear nose and throat doctor. He wants to do an $1,000 MRI. My insurance will cover no part of it. I have a $1,000 deductible...that will be it He says its PROBABLY a cyst but he wants to see the extent of bone damage (if any) that has occurred before messing with it and that can only be determined with the MRI (I'm not buying it as an absolute necessity). He has said that if it is a cyst he can remove it for me in his office under general anesthesia by going through my mouth as opposed to the nose (neither sounds like fun).
I'm thinking I can probably go and see a dentist/oral surgeon and if it IS a cyst they would be able to tell with a much less expensive test. Perhaps split the gum right there in the office with a ton of novacaine, remove the cyst, sew me up, and be done with it. I could also, while there, make arrangements to have that cracked wisdom tooth removed. But this ear, nose and throat guy wants me to spend $1,000 on ONE TEST that won't do a thing for treating whatever it is.
Then theres the question of whether or not that painless growing lump could be cancerous and whether or not an ear nose and throat doctor might be better equipped to determine that before whipping out the scalpel. Hey, I'm not rich...If I have to spend $1,000 I'd really rather not blow it all on a single test that STILL WON'T TELL ME if the thing is cancerous or pay towards the cost of getting it out of my mouth.
Anyway...I've attached a pic of the offending lump from an inside the mouth perspective because you can't see a darn thing looking at me face on. There is no notable exterior lump.
Has anyone out there had a similar problem? Perhaps someone can advise me on which route to take ENT or Oral Surgeon? I've got to make a decision soon because though it doesn't hurt at all it's beginning to worry and annoy me BIG TIME.