“Any time your child starts talking funny and starts drooling, and you look in their mouth and see some sort of a mass, it’s going to scare a parent quite a bit.”

– Dr. Mike Ziegler, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta

Doctors consider the mouth to be a mirror of a person’s overall health. So any growth in the mouth, especially in a child, can be alarming.

A week ago, Sheeno had a small lump under his tongue. But the lump is now so large that the four-year-old is drooling, and in pain.

“Any time your child starts talking funny and starts drooling, and you look in their mouth and see some sort of a mass, it’s going to scare a parent quite a bit,” says Dr. Mike Ziegler of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

Scared, because such growths might be a tumor or cancer. But the doctor thinks, in this case, that is unlikely.

“The reason why I wouldn’t put that at the top of the list is that malignancies don’t tend to grow overnight,” he says. “They tend to be things that are indolent, slow-growing masses.”

The growth turns out to be a cyst, filled with saliva — caused by a blocked salivary duct.

“And basically, if one of those ducts gets clogged or blocked, then the fluid can build up,” says Dr. Ziegler. “And as it does, it sort of balloons out tissue.”

The cyst should go away with time, or it may have to be drained by an oral surgeon. For now, the doctor wants to make sure it doesn’t interfere with Sheeno’s breathing, or ability to drink.

“In his case, if he’s not able to drink, then he’s going to get dehydrated,” says Dr. Ziegler. “So we needed to prove that not only could he breathe, but we also needed to prove that he could drink.”

Sheeno could do both, and was later sent home.

The lesson, doctors say, is to never ignore any growth in the mouth.

“It may be that a trip to the emergency room results in us saying, ‘Hey, everything’s going to be okay, you can go back home,’” says Dr. Ziegler. “But that’s a whole lot better than staying home, and finding out that you’d wish you’d gone in. “

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• A mucous cyst will often drain on its own. If not, a health care provider can open the cyst. But parents should not risk infection or damaging the delicate tissues in the mouth — by attempting to drain a child’s cyst at home. (U.S. National Library of Medicine/ National Institutes of Health)




• Any child with a large growth in their mouth, especially something that appears to be interfering with a their ability to breathe or drink, needs to be seen by a doctor right away. (Dr. Mike Ziegler, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta)

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• NetWellness
• American Dental Association

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