Have Parkinsons Disease. Noticed Large Canker Sore Under Tongue. Could I Have Malignancy In Body?

Posted on Tue, 18 Sep 2012

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 Answered on

Tue, 9 Oct 2012 Last reviewed on

Question : a week ago I went to my dentist because I had a large canker sore on the under side of my tongue on the left side. He found a tooth had chipped off and was iritating where my canker sore was so he gound down the tooth and put something on the canker sore and in a week the sore was healed. I asked the dentists why my chin on my left side was numb he said there are a lot of nerves in the area of my canker sore. My dentist felt the numbness was caused from the large canker sore, he said he had seen cases where it has taken 3 months for numbness to heal. I got on the internet and it tells me I could have a malignancy in my body. I am extremely tired but I think it is from worry about a possible malignancy, please tell me I do not have anything to worry about. I do have parkinsons disease, I have had it for about 15 years, I had 2 surgeries 1 to remove a twisted lower intestine and 1 surgery to reverse the bad from twisted lower intestine,

Answered by Dr. Naveen (2 hours later)

Hi

Thanks for the query

After going through the description, I feel the numbness is very unlikely to be secondary to malignancy.

I do agree with the fact that recurrent canker sore could behave as a premalignant condition. But in your case, the ulcer has already healed and it is only the numbness which is prevailing. Hence the numbness could be due to peripheral neuritis which is an age related changes in the nerves.

The skin over the chin is supplied by the branches of the trigeminal nerve and the ulcer was present in the floor of the mouth, which is innervated by branches of the lingual nerve, the mylohyoid nerve. So in this case, if at all you were to be having any malignancy it could have caused numbness in the floor of the mouth rather than the anterior part of the chin. Hence, there is no relation between the numbness and the malignancy.

Secondly, the generalized weakness could be related to hormonal changes in the post menopausal period, reduction in hemoglobin, etc. which requires a thorough evaluation. My advice to you is to consult your doctor for a complete check-up and further management.

Hope I have answered your query; I will be available for the follow-up queries.

Regards
Dr. Naveen Kumar N.
ENT and Head & Neck Surgeon

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar