Oral Ulcers from Trauma
I recently had a good friend call me concerned about a very tender area on his gum. He is a healthy 35 year old male who had a deep cleaning 2 plus years ago. His erupted 3rd molars (wisdom teeth) had caused inflamed gum tissue around the wisdom teeth along with his mild to moderate periodontitis at that time.
Periodontal Examination
He came into the office, we updated his x-rays and performed a periodontal examination which showed that 2 areas required deep scaling again.
Mouth Ulcer
Then he asked me about the tender area on the lingual (tongue-side) of the tissue. In fact he had a very small ulcer near the second molar about 5 mm beneath the gumline. This is not a sequestrum (a piece of bone working it’s way out of the socket) since he had no extractions or other surgery in the area. But a tiny scratch caused by some incidental trauma during eating can be exacerbated by the tongue rubbing against the ulcer. It’s quite uncomfortable.
I spoke with this patient in 2 weeks. It is now totally asymptomatic, but he notices that there is a small indentation where the ulcer was located. It may take some time for that area to fill in if it does so at all.