Carmen, This is very interesting. I also have had chronic swelling over my right temple for quite awhile. I didn't have it initially when I found the lump in my cheek back in 4/02, I think I noticed it back last winter sometime. I checked it while writing this and it has gone down but the right is still more swollen than the left. But the swelling in my temple is like that in my cheeks it gets worse and then better. I've had two CT Scans of my sinuses and one of my neck that ruled out a tumor of my parotid glands but, I'm wondering now if they would have showed something in my cheek .....the physical hands on exams find nothing in my mouth or cheeks that any doctor is concerned about. I do get off and on swelling of my small salivary glands when the swelling in my cheeks gets worse, but the oral pathologist wasn't concerned about this either. As I said I've had this swelling in my cheeks over a year now and this month was the first I'd heard about having thick saliva so I don't know if this is a new symptom or if it's been going on for all this time. My story/history just gets so confusing I won't try to explain everything but I do have some questions as your post was very informative. Did you have the tumor in your cheek removed as well as the pit tumor or did you mean the tumor in the cheek went away on it's own after you had the pit tumor removed? Also, did you have swelling over your entire cheek or just in the temple and the tumor area. Just wondering because this is all so interesting and informative for me. Thanks for responding it really helped, Lisa | 