October 2016  Randomly one night after dinner, Jim thought the inside of mouth felt swollen.  He went to the bathroom mirror and was quite shocked to find Multiple Dark Spots inside his mouth.  They were located inside the lip area, on both sides inside the cheeks, the back of his mouth as well as on the roof of the mouth.

Because of his dry mouth, he frequently bites his inside cheeks and lips which causes bleeding.  We thought these marks must be a result of that. Jim made an appointment with his ENT  for his routine 6 month checkup for the scope down the back of his nose and throat and told them he had unexplained spots inside his mouth that have not been there before.

His ENT viewed the spots and said quite frankly she has never seen these spots before.  She believed that they were not cancerous, nor a result from his frequent biting of his inside of the mouth but told Jim she would do a biopsy if he wanted to ease his mind.  She finished the appointment with the scope and told him everything looked great.  She said she was not concerned with the spots.  Jim told her he would make an appointment with his dentist to see if he knew what these spots were from.

Two days later, Jim visited the dentist.  He also had never seen these spots.  He took pictures and said he would consult with fellow doctors.  He also said they did not appear to be cancerous however to get a biopsy.

Jim went back to his ENT and had a biopsy done on October 28, 2016.  She numbed his inside cheek and took a sample. We unfortunately had to wait the weekend out for the results.  It was a very long wait.

November 1, 2016, Jim received a call from his ENT and the biopsy results were BENIGN! The official result was labeled as Labial Melanotic Macules. Which means freckles in the mouth.

Our dentist also continued his research with other Doctors and they have stated they have in fact seen a few cases of this with patients that have survived Squamous Cell Carcinoma.  It seems it may be caused by chemo drugs in certain patients that trigger a sudden deposition of melanin pigmentation on the oral tissues where there happens to be acute inflammation. Once again, completely benign but likely permanent.