Dental Blog

Dr Sunitha Prasad

6 Quick Tips for Your Mouth Ulcers


  • Posted By General dental surgeon
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    Even though mouth ulcers are pretty small they can be extremely irritating and painful. There is a saying “dynamite comes in short packages”

     

    Ulcers are common in children usually above the age of 6, in teens and adolescents, whereas few suffer from these lesions even in their forties. And its occurrence is higher in women than in men

     

    Predisposing factors

     

    Mouth ulcers are usually recurrent. There have been thousands of studies done to establish the cause of ulcers but none of them have been successful in pointing out the actual reason.

     

    Some of the predisposing factors are:

     

    1. Emotional Stress

    2. Lack of Sleep

    3. Deficiency of vitamins like Vit B12, Folic Acid,

    4. Iron deficiency

    5. Mechanical irritating factors on mouth like faulty dentures, appliances, fillings, braces

    6. Exposure to allergenic food components

    7. Hormonal variations

    8. Trauma

     

    Features and types of apthous ulcers:

     

    They are usually small with a diameter of 2-8 mm, are usually circular in nature and are painful while consuming food

    Major ulcers - These are ulcers which are usually bigger than 10 mm diameter, are oval in shape and can lead to scarring of the affected site

    Herpetiform ulcers - They are another variant of ulcers. They are usually multiple in numbers with recurrent crops. Sometimes these multiple small lesions might fuse together to form huge painful ulcers.

     

    Treatment of mouth ulcers:

     

    Commonly, treatment for apthous ulcer is palliative. They heal over a period of 8-14 days but major ulcers might need 3-4 weeks for complete remission.

     

    1. Topical analgesics to relieve pain

    2. Topical/Oral antibiotics to control any secondary infection.

    3. Medicated mouth rinses to reduce ulcer pain

    4. Chlorhexidine mouthwash

    5. In severe cases, steroids are used to control severity of spread and pain of these canker sores. 

    6. Vit B12 supplements, iron tablets

     

    Any mouth ulcer that does not heal beyond a period of 2 weeks should be referred for investigations to rule out underlying

     

    1. Cancer

    2. Viral or fungal infections

    3. Mucosal disorders like lichen planus or Pemphigus

     

    Ulcers should not be a concern. They usually heal in couple of days and pain management is crucial.