Slight blood in the saliva.
February 1, 2017 | 20,00 EUR | answered by Christian Welsch
Hello, a question for Ms. Höllering! I am male and 23 years old, you might still remember me, I was the Lupus patient with ALS anxiety and I have asked questions on JustAnswer before. Currently, I don't have any problems and I am studying, currently under exam stress. This morning, I squeezed a big pimple on my nose, which bled quite heavily afterwards. Strangely enough, right after that, I had a bloody taste in my mouth. Also, my saliva was slightly pink. This has not stopped after 5 hours. I don't have any wounds in my mouth, but I still have slight blood in my saliva, and at one point there were some dots of blood in my saliva. I don't really have time to go to the doctor as I need to study, and the problem doesn't seem to be acute or getting worse. When I went a bit deeper into my nose, the "boogers" were also red, but only a few. Maybe there is a connection here. Still, I'm afraid it might be related to my lungs or something malignant, or it could be related to the breathlessness I have been experiencing when falling asleep or waking up since last summer. Thank you in advance.
Hello dear questioner, Mrs. Höllering seems to be unavailable right now, so I will try to answer this question.
I consider a malicious event in this context to be highly unlikely. The mucous membranes in the ENT area are very sensitive and can sometimes bleed spontaneously, especially when irritated (e.g. when picking your nose). Cancer in this area usually only develops from smoking and consuming high-proof alcohol, you did not mention if you have any risk factors, but even then you are too young.
Wood dust in carpenters can also trigger nose cancer, but this is rare and usually does not occur at 23. We doctors calculate the risk of smoking in pack-years, meaning if you smoke one pack a day for one year, you have smoked one pack-year. The relevant cancer risk increases after 20 pack-years, so you would have to start smoking 3 packs a day to have a statistical chance of getting cancer. The only relevant disease at your age is the papillomavirus, which can cause warts and also cancer in the ENT and genital area, although this is rare and I have not found a 23-year-old with it yet.
There are a few rare vascular diseases that can explain something like this. If it persists, have an ENT colleague take a look, an examination should not take longer than 5 minutes.
Get well soon.
