MULTIPLE REOCURRING CANKER SORES (Ouch!) Is it worth it to go see a doctor? (cold, sore)
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Oh you have gotten much good advice. As for a doctor visit, I would say probably not. I have suffered from canker sores from as early as I can remember and I am now 63 years old and still deal with them. I've talked to doctors and dentists and done a lot of reading but mostly what I have found is that the medical people get a very sad face for me in empathy and then tell me the old "You can leave it alone and it will be gone in 2 weeks. Or you can try some treatments and it will be gone in 14 days...." . Sounds harsh but basically, they are what they are and some people are plagued by the things and others aren't. At least I know they aren't contagious as I have been married many decades and non-plagued spouses never get them.
I generally never just have one - I have multiple ones - some are little tiny and I pray they won't get big - others become so huge I want to die - sometimes a bunch of little ones join forces and become a gaping ulcer. So I relate to the multips and the repeats. Again, it seems some people do, and some people don't.
A dentist did give me my own stash of Lidocaine at one time/I would swish it in my mouth and it was a life saver but it is an anesthetic/number and I felt it absorbed through my mucus membrane and made me light-headed. Of course, I was likely over-medicating it in my swishing. It did help with the pain.
I also found that many of the topical things like Ora jel/Kanka and the like did give temporary relief but seemed to cause the things to go very red in appearance (the ring around the sunken/yellow-gray part) and sometimes I felt it made things worse once it wore off. My eyes teared up and I felt sick through my body. It does throw you for a loop.
Foods do provoke an outbreak of the things . Like others described, high acid foods are a killer. I was surprised how awful cantaloupe is for them is because I think of it as such a gentle fruit but actually a highly-acidic fruit and kills me. If I don't have them, it is fine but eating a lot of them does seem to increase the odds of an outbreak. And eating one when I have one or a million is torture.
Stress, hormones , lack of sleep - all bring them out. The dentist told me that when exams were on in dental school and everyone was pulling all-nighters, the dorm was full of fellow canker sufferers weeping with the pain in their mouths. At least fellow sufferers do feel your pain and the non-sufferers wince when you show them what is in your mouth. I only do that when someone thinks I'm whining......I show them that childbirth produces whining, canker sores are real pain. Just kidding ...........both are tough but at least you get a compensatory prize with childbirth.
My dad always recommended the Lysine supplement. The toothpaste issue is real - don't just look for natural - look for the ingredient that several mentioned - that is the culprit and many natural toothpastes use it in theirs. I am blanking on it just now but I know someone mentioned it. Sodium laurel or something /mind just left me. That is the foaming agent so if your toothpaste foams nicely, it is in your toothpaste. I use the toothpastes that specifically do not have that in the ingredients if I have canker sores or I have also used it regularly to act as a preventative. It works pretty well but isn't a guarantee that they won't still come . Does seem to lessen the outbreaks.
Packing beeswax on my teeth or whatever the sore seems to rub has been helpful when I have the sores. Seems to be a more gentle surface. I have mixed Milk of Magnesia with Liquid Benedryl and that has been soothing as well. I really do find that not getting enough sleep is the biggest risk for me of getting a mouthful.
Several people seemed concerned that you get many at a time and with regularity. There are people that only get them , and then only one, when they get knocked in the mouth. Which those of us with the multips also generally get them for those unfortunate bumps and things but we get them for just waking up in the morning as well. Hopefully there is some awful thing that can happen in life that those of us with constant canker sores are immune to - that would be only fair, right?
So, my regrets to you on being a sufferer. HOpe all the good ideas that people have given are helpful. If it is any consolation, I think mine heal faster with age - odd since everything else seems to last longer. Do keep a journal up to see if you do see a pattern beyond the cycle issue/that does have an impact so figure pregnancy and menopause and all that will as well. Maybe that is why mine last less time/no hormones to feed on?????? They get disgusted and leave.
Keep a stiff upper lip (But don't bite the lower one!)
You sound just like me!! I get them every 1-2 months, but this is the WORST it's been. It's never caused lip swelling until now. Usually I get 3 max. This time I have 4... a 5th is growing. OUCH!!
That's what I was thinking, I have never heard of that being done, and it sounds excruciatingly painful. It seems like it would just cause an even bigger outbreak of them.
I just saw a youtube of it being done!! YUCK. but honestly... they are so painful burning them sounds almost like a relief!!!!! Just get them out of my mouth, haha
Does anyone else suffer from these? How do you deal?
I currently have 3 in my mouth... they come every 1-2 months.
I feel like a baby going to the doctor for these... but I have one in my mouth that hurts SO badly it makes it hard to talk. Do you think going to the doctor would help? I don't really know what they could tell me... other than to put salt on the wound?
Help....
I quit smoking 2.5 years ago (Yay!) and I'd get mouth (Canker?) sores for 2-4 weeks...they come and go, haven't had any since the cold weather kicked in, but man they did hurt. Next time going to try a saltwater wash daily and see how that works.
I've gotten them from time to time but I think it's the alternative to having exterior cold sores. When I'm starting to come down with something they show up. And YES they hurt like the bejeebus.
I've never had a cold sore in my life. Just these awful cankers... I don't smoke/ drink/ anything... It's my only health-downfall... so far :P could be worse but OMFG OW!!!
I get them when I've been eating too much sugar. When I'm mostly sugarfree, I can injure the inside of my mouth six ways to Sunday and still won't get a canker sore. When I'm eating a lot of sugar, I don't need an injury for one to get started. Oh, never forget that toothpastes are loaded with sugar -- I brush my teeth with salt only and that really, really helps.
Canker sores are exactly the same as cold sores, BTW. Caused by herpes simplex virus (or sometimes herpes not so simplex). You can treat them with expensive antivirals but the virus never completely goes away -- it's better to simply prevent them.
Your system is out of balance...lacking something.
Good luck getting an MD to tell you anything nutritionally needed.
Get alkaline first. Then take a bunch of great vitamins and minerals daily...
make sure you are taking L-lysine.
You'll be fine.
Start from the inside out, not outside in.
+1 on taking lysine.
when I was growing up, my grandmother used to always say you were out of balance if you got sores in your mouth. She always talked about "yin" and "yang" of what you eat. somethings like fried foods were "yang" and other things like melon soup were "yin".
I could never how she figured out what I should eat to balance myself out.
My sister has a condition called geographic tongue, in which part of the skin from her tongue sloughs off, leaving her tongue red and raw. She has had it since childhood, and it is extremely painful when it flares up. It has improved a lot since she has grown up, and she controls it by using Sensodyne toothpaste, alcohol free mouthwash, and by avoiding acidic foods, especially fruits like pineapple. She also avoids Cokes and only drinks one cup of half caff coffee per day.
My daughter has geographic tongue, but hers has never been painful at all.
Try eating plain yogurt (high in L-Lysine) and Coconut oil.
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