A case of facial lymphoma mimicking dental infection.

Unlabelled: 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.

Clinical Relevance: 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.