Mouth Ulcers: Types, Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment

Do you know that mouth ulcers or canker sores are painful lesions that can develop in your mouth or at the base of your gums?

Mouth ulcers can often make eating, drinking, and talking uncomfortable.

Moreover, women, adolescents, and people with a family history of mouth ulcers are at a higher risk of developing these types of ulcers.

It is important to note that they are not contagious.

Furthermore, they tend to go away within one to two weeks.

However, if you get a canker sore that is either large or extremely painful, or in case it lasts for a long time without healing, you should seek medical attention.

With the help of certain medications, you can help treat the swelling and pain that comes with mouth ulcers.

However, they are often not important for you to make a full recovery.

With the help of certain preventive measures, you can also prevent the recurrence of canker sores.

Keep on reading to learn more about the types, causes, symptoms, and more about Mouth Ulcers.

Types of Mouth Ulcers

In case you have standard ulcers, they tend to appear on the inner cheek and often last about 1 week.

Most often they are harmless and clear up on their own without any medical intervention.

However, there are three types of mouth ulcers.

These are:

Herpetiform Ulceration, HU

Herpetiform ulcers are a subtype of aphthous ulcers and get their name as they resemble the sores that come with herpes.

However, unlike herpes, HU is not contagious.

Moreover, HU ulcers recur very quickly ad it may appear that the condition never gets better.

Minor Ulcers

These types of ulcers can range in size from about 2 millimeters, mm up to 8 millimeters mm across.

Furthermore, these ulcers often take up to 2 weeks to get better and will also cause minor pain.

Major Ulcers

These ones are bigger than minor ulcers.

Major ulcers tend to be irregular in shape and may be raised and penetrate deeper into the tissue than minor ulcers.

It is important to note that they can take a number of weeks to go away and are also likely to leave scar tissue when they clear.

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Triggers of Mouth Ulcers

There is no definite cause behind the occurrence of mouth ulcers.

However, doctors have identified certain factors and triggers.

These are as follows:

Minor mouth injury from dental work, hard brushing your teeth, sports injury, or accidental bite.

Toothpaste and mouth rinses that contain sodium lauryl sulfate.

Food sensitivities to acidic foods like strawberries, citrus, and pineapple, and other trigger foods like chocolate and coffee.

Lack of certain essential vitamins, especially, B12, zinc, folate, and iron.

An allergic reaction of mouth bacteria, dental braces, and hormonal changes during menstruation.

Emotional stress or lack of sleep, bacterial, viral, or fungal infections.

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Sign of an Underlying Medical Condition

It is important to note that mouth sores can be a sign of conditions that are more serious and need medical attention.

These are:

• celiac disease is a condition in which your body is unable to tolerate gluten
• inflammatory bowel disease
• diabetes mellitus

• Behcet’s disease is a condition that causes inflammation throughout your body
• a malfunctioning immune system that causes your body to attack the healthy mouth cells instead of viruses and bacteria
• HIV/AIDs

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Are Mouth Ulcers Cancerous?

One of the important things to note is that both mouth cancer and mouth ulcers are distinctive in their symptoms.

However, as mentioned above, new or persistent ulcers need immediate medical attention.

Moreover, there are certain fundamental differences between mouth ulcers and what might be cancer.

There are:

Ulcers are often painful whereas mouth cancer is not.

In most cases, ulcers tend to clear up in about 2 weeks, however, mouth cancer will not go away and will often spread.

Mouth cancer patches tend to be rough, hard, and not easy to scrape off.

Moreover, mouth cancer is often a mix of red and white areas or large white areas that may appear on the tongue, the back of your mouth, the gums, or the cheeks.

Furthermore, mouth cancer is often linked to heavy drinking or the use of tobacco and its by-products.

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Symptoms of Mouth Ulcers

Ulcers can be painful and the pain may worsen when you consume food, drinks and have poor oral hygiene.

Moreover, HU lesions may:

Appear as extremely painful ulcers in the mouth, recur very quickly, so the infection may seem to be contagious, and can take 20 or more days to heal.

Furthermore, they tend to increase in size, eventually coming together to form a large, ragged ulcer and can appear anywhere in your mouth.

It is important to note that they tend to be found more in females than males and are also very common in older adults.

Symptoms of Minor and Major Ulcers

On the other hand, symptoms of minor and major ulcers include:

• one or more painful sore that may appear on the cheeks, the roof of your mouth, o the tongue
• the appearance of round lesions that have red edges and are either yellow, white, or grey in the middle

However, during more extreme outbreaks of mouth ulcers, you may experience fever, sluggishness, and swollen glands.

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Visiting a Doctor

If you are one of those people who frequently get mouth ulcers, you may find it difficult to know when to see the doctor.

However, there are some situations, where you should seek medical advice or see a doctor as soon as possible.

Some of these situations are:

The appearance of non-painful ulcers in one or more areas of your mouth, and unusual ulcers that appear in a new spot in your mouth.

Moreover, ulcers that are spreading, and ones that last longers than 3 weeks need medical attention.

While other may want to seek medical attention or treatment if the ulcers are:

• particularly painful or big
• a fever appears
• develop after starting a new medication
• secondary bacterial infections

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Treatment Options

In order to diagnose mouth ulcers, your doctor will only need to visually examine the ulcers.

But in case you have frequent, severe mouth ulcers, your doctor may test you for other medical conditions.

In most cases, mouth ulcers do not need treatment.

However, if you often get mouth ulcers or when they are extremely painful, a number of treatments can help to decrease the pain and healing time.

You can try the following treatment options:

Use a rinse of saltwater and baking soda.

Place milk of magnesia on the mouth ulcer.

Cover the ulcers with baking soda paste.

Moreover, you can use over-the-counter benzocaine, i.e. topical anesthetic products like Orajel or Anbesol.

You can also apply ice to canker sores, use topical pastes, or place damp tea bags on the ulcers.

Furthermore, you can use a mouth rinse that contains a steroid to reduce pain and swelling.

Take nutritional supplements like folic acid, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, and zinc.

You can also try using natural remedies like chamomile tea, echinacea, myrrh, and licorice root.

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Prevention Tips

You can take certain steps to reduce the occurrence of mouth ulcers.

Moreover, avoid foods that can irritate your mouth and it can be helpful.

This includes avoiding acidic foods, like:

• pineapple
• grapefruit
• oranges
• lemon
• nuts
• chips
• anything that is spicy

Instead, you should choose whole grains and alkaline, i.e. nonacidic foods and vegetables.

Make sure to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet and take a daily multivitamin.

Furthermore, it is important to note that you should avoid talking while you are chewing your food.

This can help to reduce the chances of accidental bites.

Reducing stress and maintaining good oral hygiene by using dental floss daily and brushing your teeth twice a day or after meals may also be helpful.

Finally, make sure to get adequate sleep and rest.

This not only will help prevent mouth ulcers but a host of other illnesses as well.

An important thing to note is that some people find avoiding soft bristle toothbrushes and mouthwashes that contain sodium lauryl sulfate to be helpful as well.

Furthermore, your dentist can give you a wax to cover dental and orthodontic mouth devices that have sharp edges.

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Wrapping it Up

Mouth ulcers are recurring nuisances that are benign, and it is important to note that your doctor or dentist should examine any new ulcer and any ulcer that lasts longer than 2 weeks. However, in most cases, they tend to clear up within 2 weeks.

Thankfully, most types of mouth ulcers tend to clear up on their own without any medical intervention and the pain associated with an ulcer often disappears within a couple of days.

With the help of certain medications, in the form of ointments and solutions can help with pain and swelling, however, they are often not necessary for you to make a full recovery. In order to prevent future outbreaks, you should try to reduce stress and anxiety as much as possible.