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Noticed Lump Attached To Lower Jaw. No Pain. What Can Be Done?
Question: My 8 month old baby has a pea or slightly larger sized lump that is very, very hard (no movement) and appears to be attached to the bottom jaw bone slightly right of her chin. She also appears to be teething in the bottom two front teeth, which will be her first. I'm concerned that the lump has not decreased in size over the last 2 days since I found it. It's not visible and does not appear painful.
Dear XXXXXX,
Thank you for using XXXXXXX to address your query. I am Dr. Taher and I will try to answer this for you. First of all, let me tell you that small lumps of this kind are likely to be lymph glands, but your mentioning that it is very, very hard and does not move makes me think it is bony in consistency. Bone swellings that are attached to the underlying bone can be cysts (i.e. fluid-filled) or be solid-like in consistency.
There are a myriad such growths that can be present right from infancy, and most are benign in nature, but some can turn into nasty problems, so my suggestion is for you to take the baby straight to her pediatrician or to a pediatric orthopedic surgeon. She will need the following tests - an X-ray of the jaw bone, a full blood count, and a bone scan and/or a bone CT scan, to start with.
Further treatment can be determined only after the details of each of the above tests are known.
Please let me know how this pans out. I am waiting for your follow-up.
I suggest this even if your daughter is otherwise well and feeding etc. properly.
With best wishes,
Dr. Taher
Thank you for using XXXXXXX to address your query. I am Dr. Taher and I will try to answer this for you. First of all, let me tell you that small lumps of this kind are likely to be lymph glands, but your mentioning that it is very, very hard and does not move makes me think it is bony in consistency. Bone swellings that are attached to the underlying bone can be cysts (i.e. fluid-filled) or be solid-like in consistency.
There are a myriad such growths that can be present right from infancy, and most are benign in nature, but some can turn into nasty problems, so my suggestion is for you to take the baby straight to her pediatrician or to a pediatric orthopedic surgeon. She will need the following tests - an X-ray of the jaw bone, a full blood count, and a bone scan and/or a bone CT scan, to start with.
Further treatment can be determined only after the details of each of the above tests are known.
Please let me know how this pans out. I am waiting for your follow-up.
I suggest this even if your daughter is otherwise well and feeding etc. properly.
With best wishes,
Dr. Taher
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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