There are some that have bad experiences with ANY procedure, so you will come across those who had one with the lip biopsy. Keep in mind that people don't go out of their way to post on a forum about good experiences, so I bet for every 1 bad experience there are hundreds that went fine...maybe even more.

Ask the doctor how much experience he/she has in doing these. I would stick with a large academic hospital as they would do more...also the pathologist reading it might have more experience, and this is just as important as the doctor doing the procedure. ENT's do them, so do some dermatologist (mine was done by a derm at Hopkins), and some oral surgeons. I don't know of many rheumys that do them, but that's not to say that some don't...I just don't think it's common. As for understanding the disease itself better, the rheumatologist.

And don't forget to request a copy of the pathologist report.

I have not heard of Sarcoidosis and/or amyloid polyneuropathy being diagnosed from a lip biopsy. Must be something new. Medscape is a reliable source, I'd be curious to know how or whatthey look at in this case that's different from diagnosing Sjogren's...which is looking (and counting) lymphocytic infiltrates.