mouth blisters

Over the past two months, while I was eating I noticed pea-sized clear fluid-filled blisters in my mouth. Three have appeared in the same spot on the inside of my cheek, and one near the back of my throat where the jaw meets. They've been appearing between one to three weeks apart. They are not painful at all. They all break very easily within an hour after I notice them and usually disappear immediately, but the latest one (in the back of my throat) did not break completely and became very small and red with a white center. What could this possibly be?

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

You have a mucocele.  Our mouths are lined with mucus-secreting glands with microscopic pores; if a pore gets blocked, mucus builds up.  It's an entirely benign condition.  After one breaks (you can ***** it yourself, if you like), you may see an irritated spot--such as the red and white thing you describe.

Bottom line:  An anatomic variant, no sign of any kind of health problem.

Good luck--  HHH, MD

[madison81]

I think I have one of these on the inside of my bottom lip.  It pops, but it keeps coming back.