Torus Torus Torus

50Y M with 60 pack-year history of smoking presents with a painless lump on the hard palate.  Appropriate history taking determines that it has been slowly developing over a long period of time, and the finding can be dismissed as a
torus palatinus, a normal variant.

There are three tori that can potentially occur in the skull: the torus palatinus, the torus maxillaris, and the torus mandibularis.  All three are relatively common (autosomal dominant with variable penetrance) but virtually uneventful bony exostoses.  Case reports of symptomatic tori exist in the literature, but the value of recognizing them on a CT of the skull is essentially to dismiss them as a normal variant.

1.  Gorsky M, Bukai A, Shoha M. "Genetic Influence on the Prevalence of Torus Palatinus" American Journal of Medical Genetics 75:138–140 (1998)
2. Tran KT, Shannon M. "Images in Clincal Medicine: Torus Palatinus"  NEJM 356;17 www.nejm.org april 26, 2007