Question: Hi Doctor! Lately I’ve been experiencing some ear and jaw pain, and I did have a CT scan of my maxillofacial structures done, and am attaching a copy of the same. I followed up with my ENT doctor, and she performed a full exam. She indicated that the mucous cyst and mucousal inflammation in the sphenoid and ethmoid sinuses on the left side could account for the left-sided pain which I am experiencing; I visited my dentist as well and he also did a full exam and feels that my masseter and jaw muscles are extremely tight and constricted, and that could be causing the pain. My question, however, pertains to a lesion in my left nasal vestibule, which showed up on the scan and which my ENT looked at. From what she could see, she indicated something about "inverted" and wants me to have it removed by an ENT surgeon. Apparently it is 11 by 5 mm. I have no pain in that area, no nosebleeds or congestion, and cannot feel a growth with my finger, etc. As a matter of fact, when I last visited the ENT three months ago, she did not even see it. I saw there is something called an inverted papilloma and think that may be what she was referring to, and I saw that they can progress to squamous cell cancer and tend to reoccur even after removal. Obviously, we don't even know for sure what it is at this point, but I am super worried after googling some of these nasal cancers. Based upon my history, the CT scan report, and my lack of symptoms in my nasal area, is there any reassurance or information which you can give me? Also, my second question is this: I've had plantar warts on the soles of my feet for years now, and my podiatrist tried an autoimplantation therapy just this past January, in which she removed a tiny piece of the wart and transplanted it in the inside portion of my foot, hoping to trigger an immune response to attack the wart. Since those are caused by HPV and I read that inverted papilloma may be as well, my anxiety has me worried that the treatment somehow caused the lesion in my nose and will cause more. Any reassurance that is not the case? Thank you!!

Hi Dr. Bhavsar! Thank you so much for your kind and reassuring answer! My ENT doctor did seem to imply that the ENT surgeon to whom she referred me would want to surgically remove the growth, since she believes it to be an inverted papilloma, which she said can spread pretty quickly. That being said, if it does turn out to be an inverted papilloma, given the relatively small size of it and the fact that the CT scan seems to indicate it is contained, do you feel the surgical removal will be pretty successful without a big chance of reoccurrence, which I understand (thanks to google) that these particular types of papilloma can do? Thank you again for your help and reassurances!