While every part of your body has an important role in keeping you healthy, there’s no denying the importance of your mouth. Not only do most people use it for eating, but it’s also what most people use when communicating through talking.
It’s no wonder that any sort of injury to it can ruin your everyday routine, especially when you aren’t even sure how it happened. This can apply to sore throats or toothaches, but another potential culprit can be a canker sore.
What is a canker sore?
A canker sore, or aphthous stomatitis, is an ulcer in your mouth that can make eating or talking uncomfortable, even painful. Canker sores look like circles, colored white or red, and more than one can appear depending on how they are formed.
How can you get a canker sore?
The tricky thing about canker sores is that their origins can be vast and vague. There are various ways you can get a canker sore, and some reasons might not be immediately obvious, which might include:
Stress: stress can damage your body, either by reducing the effectiveness of your immune system, or by triggering an overabundance of chemicals such as stomach acid.
Specific foods: acidic foods can be as damaging to your mouth as stomach acids. Citrus fruits like lemons or oranges, and even vegetables like tomatoes, have a high acidic concentration.
Injury: any sort of physical trauma or injury to your mouth might cause a mouth sore. You can accidentally bite down on your mouth while eating, or maybe something like a dental tool pokes your mouth while cleaning.
Vitamin or mineral deficiency: deficiencies in vitamin B12 or folic acid, which play an important factor in cell reproduction, can lead to cell breakdown and ulcer formation in the mouth.
Are canker sores the same as cold sores?
While canker sores and cold sores look and feel similar, the major difference between them is how they’re formed.
Cold sores form from the herpes simplex virus, a virus that can lay dormant in your body until stress or physical trauma to the skin like sunburn triggers its appearance.
Also, while they can look like open sores, they first start out as blisters that eventually pop.
Because they’re caused by a virus, cold sores can also be contagious as they’re healing, and they aren’t just limited to your mouth. You can get cold sores wherever the open sore touches, such as your lips, nose, and even eyes.
Treatment for canker sores
Probably the most effective way to treat canker sores is to reduce exposure to whatever might have caused them. This means:
· Reducing stress
· Avoiding acidic and spicy foods
· Avoiding injury to the mouth
Meanwhile, there are other ways you can be more involved in treating your canker sores. For example, upping your intake of B12 and folic acid might not cause immediate relief, but it can encourage cell reproduction that might prevent canker sores from forming at all.
Because canker sores can make eating or talking incredibly painful, there are ways you can treat that pain as it heals. Over-the-counter pain medication can treat the discomfort, and there are topical medications or mouthwashes available that can numb the sore directly.
Overall, canker sores will usually heal within a week, though the time can vary depending on how severe they are and how diligent you are with treating them. However, if your canker sore hasn’t healed after three weeks, then you should seek out your healthcare provider.
Conclusion
Canker sores can be a real inconvenience in your everyday life, and it can frustrate you if you don’t know what even caused them. However, you can treat them by taking a few effective steps that’ll hopefully reduce their existence.
Sources
WebMD. Canker Sore (Aphthous Ulcer). https://www.webmd.com/oral-health/canker-sores
WebMD. How to Keep Stress From Wrecking Your Mouth. https://www.webmd.com/oral-health/stress-teeth
Healthline. Painful Sensation? Could Be a Canker Sore. https://www.healthline.com/health/canker-sores
VeryWellHealth. Can Vitamin B Prevent Canker Sores? https://www.verywellhealth.com/can-vitamin-b-prevent-canker-sores-7500182
Assessed and Endorsed by the MedReport Medical Review Board