Fordyce Granules

Fordyce granules are yellow or yellowish-white clusters of pimple-like formations just beneath the mucosa (the pink tissue covering the inside of the oral cavity). They usually occur on the inside of the lips and cheeks or in the corners of the mouth. They are not symptomatic of a disease, but a normal variation in the appearance of the inside of the lips or cheek.

Fordyce granules are actually sebaceous glands, which are oil-producing glands that normally exist under your skin beneath the hair follicles. However, they have no function within the mouth; their existence is therefore said to be ectopic, or abnormal. The surface of the mouth’s lining (called the mucosa) may have a slightly rough feel to it where the glands are clustered, but such change in the texture of the mucosa is of no consequence.

These clusters beneath the mucosa within your mouth, but rest assured they are harmless sebaceous glands that are simply out of place.