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Posted on 9/20/2019 by Dr McMurray |
 Bony mouth growths sound like a scary condition. As looks can be deceiving so can sounds. The technical term for the bony mouth growth is a torus, which doesn't sound quite so scary. Torus is also associated with another word that indicates the location of the bony mouth growth. You can have these growths in the middle of the roof of your mouth or you can have them near the side of your tongue on your lower jaw. This location is rarer for those who have a torus. Twenty percent of the people who have a torus have it on the roof of their mouth. What Is a Torus?A torus is a projection of bone that is rounded and is very slow-growing. As noted above, there are two kinds. One is torus mandibularis, which is the bony growth that grows alongside your tongue on your lower jaw. The other is torus palatinus which is a bony growth that grows on the roof of your mouth. Both are benign and not cancerous. So, what makes them form? Some people get these bony growths because of genetics, it is passed down through the family. If other members of your family have them, then this is the likely reason. Another possible cause is grinding your teeth. This is because teeth grinding causes stress on your jaw bone and the bony growths grow to support your teeth. So What Can You Do? The easy answer is that you don't have to do anything. Whether you have torus mandibularis or torus palatinus, the growth does not cause any harm and are best left alone. They are not cancerous, cannot become cancerous, do not cause infections or do anything detrimental to your oral health. The only times we consider surgically removing them or grinding them down is if they start to interfere with your speech or they make a dental prosthesis difficult to fit. If you suffer from either of these conditions come and see us. We can then have a baseline for them and if they start to bother you, we'll be able to figure out why. |
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