A Case of Buccal Mucosal Swelling: The Diagnostic Conundrum

Buccal mucosal swellings are more often noticed in day to day practice. Routinely they are associated with buccal space, buccal fat pad, buccinator muscle and minor/major salivary glands etc. Certain common oral swelling presenting in this region leads us to a prompting concern about the tumors. A 62 year old female patient reported with a chief complaint of pain in left cheek region since 2 years. A diffuse swelling approximately 2 × 2 cm in the buccal mucosa near to the retro-molar area was noticed. With this a working diagnosis of chronic sialadinitis of minor salivary gland or fibroma secondary to traumatic denture flanges was given. Surgically lesion was separated from underlying tissue and was excised into. The histopathological picture of the lesion was sclerosing variant of mucoepidermoid carcinoma of minor salivary gland which was unexpected and therefore probably the consideration of malignancy in the differential diagnosis even though the clinical presentation is not in favor is a take home message.