is this oral cancer?

Question

i have been a one-pack-a-day smoker since i was 18. i am now 22. i quit smoking about three weeks ago, but lately i've been plagued by toothaches, earaches, and jaw pain. there's no swelling in my jaw, and when i went to see a week after i quit they said that i was just suffering from TMJ. but now (two weeks later) i see a small portion of my inner bottom lip has turned a bright red. it doesn't look patchy per say, but i'm still concerned. it looks as though i may have bitten too hard on that area in my sleep or something. it doesn't hurt and it doesn't bleed, and i've only had it for a day or so. so my question is this: is it possible to be have gotten oral cancer at my age and after only having smoked for four years? i don't drink alcohol at all and i generally have good oral hygiene. thhanks!

the red patch went away, but i now have a small, painless canker sore inside my cheek. i also have a sore throat, difficulty swallowing, a stiff neck, pain in my right finger joints, and an ear ache. could this be head and neck cancer? or maybe i have something similar to a tonsil infection or meningitis? i should also add that i have been under a lot of stress lately, what with final exams and all. once again, thanks!

Answer 1

Any spot in your mouth should heal within 10 days. I have had oral cancer 3 times and I am only 35 years old. I have never smoked a day in my life. I have never done drugs or used alcohol. Cancer knows no age, religion, or race it will attack anyone. I wouldn't think I would get it. I have excellent oral hygiene I go to the dentist every 6 months and everything so if it doesn't heal so get it checked out. I've had part of my tongue removed because of cancer.

Answer 2

It is possible, but consider this - 5 - Try Vitamin C therapy. A few years ago a cancer specialist came out with a paper that said the best cancer/infection fighter found to date was Interferon. At the time it was $15,000 a gram. The paper also said that Interferon was a by-product of the natural breakdown of Vitamin C in your body. Shortly after that the FDA tried to make Vitamin C by prescription only. Guess why? 21 The FDA has the RDA for Vitamin C set at 64 mg a day, just enough to ward off scurvy. (If you find this useful, copy it and give it to a friend. Somebody got to Yahoo and they delete this as soon as they find it) Linus Pauling, who got a Nobel Prize for his work with Vitamin C and a second Nobel Prize for Organic Chemistry, said that 1000 mg a day should be the minimum and 2000 mg a day if you are sick or smoke. 22 He played tennis almost daily until the day he died at 96. Personally, I got sick twice a year for 2 weeks at a time, for more than 20 years, with something to this day the doctors have no idea what it was, but for a week in the middle of those 2 weeks I was flat on my back. I started Vitamin C therapy once I gave up on the doctors. I took enough to be asymptomatic for those 2 weeks. 23 Too much and I got diarrhea and too little and I got sick. Within a narrow range, and it followed a bell curve over those 2 weeks, I was not sick. At the height I was taking 40,000 mg a day and 300,000 over the 2 weeks. After 2 years of that I have not been sick since – more than 15 years. Vitamin C acts as a natural diuretic so you need to drink a lot of water and watch your body in total, but my kidneys did not dissolve as the doctors predicted, or get massive kidney stones as other predicted. I did not dissolve my bones as some predicted or completely calcify my joints as others predicted. 24 I had no side effects at all. It might be something to consider.

Answer 3

Any red patch in your mouth could be a herald of oral cancer. Ultimately, however, you will need to have a professional take a look at it and do a complete head and neck exam to say for sure whether it is a lesion suspicious for cancer. Oral cancer typically won't pop up overnight, and there are many things that can show up in your mouth that are red. Unless you have a strong family history of cancer, oral cancer in someone your age with four pack-years of smoking would be exceedingly rare (though certainly not impossible). Bottom line is, it doesn't sound urgent, but if the lesion persists have a doctor evaluate it.

Answer 4

Could be the inside of the mouth returning to it's normal color. I mother told me that while my step father had been in the hospital for days. He would cough up a yucking black stuff and that his breath smelled very bad. He is a heavy smoker has been since his teens. It seems do to that they don't let you smoke in the hospital. All that yucking black stuff was the system cleaning itself of all that junk accumulated by smoking. (TMJ) I don't know what that stands for.

Answer 5

Five minutes in a dentist's chair will take careof weeks of anxiety. Yes, detists can tell if it's oral cancer.

Cal your today. Maybe he can slip you in in the next day or two.Let's be sure.

Answer 6

Yes, its possible for anyone to get oral cancer no matter how long they smoke, if i were you i would research "Oral Cancer Symtoms" on google

Answer 7

I doubt it. There are a number of other things it could be. Talk to a doc or call a dentist.