A case of facial lymphoma mimicking dental infection

Infective and neoplastic swellings of the face are common. Often, the differential diagnosis is obvious, but sometimes it can be difficult to ascertain. We report the case of a cheek swelling thought to be infective in origin, but this unusual lesion turned out to be a diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. This was found to be a solitary cutaneous lesion, with associated submandibular lymphadenopathy. The initial plan was for treatment with chemo-radiotherapy, however, the lesion has, surprisingly, begun to resolve spontaneously following biopsy.

The most frequent cause of facial swellings presenting to dentists is infective, usually from dental sources, but other causes of facial swelling do need to be considered.