Resolved question:
Hi. I'm a 39 year old male. I have what appears to be a skin tag in my throat. I woke up with it hurting and noticed the white piece of skin. The night before I ate fish and remember swallowing some bones. I have attached pictures. In one of the pictures there seems to be a slice above the white skin. I have smoked cigarettes and hope this is not cancer.
Submitted:
4 Days
Category:
ENT Specialist
Thank you for using DoctorSpring.com. I have gone through your query and seen the pictures of your throat. I understand your concern. From the pictures, it does not look like cancer. The tag could be a benign(harmless) lesion due to inflammation. The exact nature of that is best determined by examination. Even though, you don't seem to have cancer, it is best that you quit smoking as you know that it is harmful and can cause cancers of the mouth, throat, larynx, lungs etc. The pain in the throat could be due to injury of the throat lining sustained while swallowing the fish bones. I have the following suggestions. - Please use warm water to gargle. This will be soothing and will relieve the pain. Also throat lozenges can reduce the pain. If pain is unberable, you can take an Advil/Motrin 400 mg once, with food, whenever there is pain. Upto four such tablets per day.
- The tag in your throat needs to be examined by a local ENT specialist. He can examine and can see its complete extent. Examination by endoscopy can be done if required. Palpation can be done to find whether it is hard or firm or soft. After examining you, he can take a decision on further management like a biopsy/removal of the tag etc. So please visit a local ENT specialist.
Hope this helps. Feel free to ask if you have any further queries.
Thank you.
Regards,
Dr. Sunil Jalan,
MBBS, DLO, MS(ENT), DNB, DAA