There's a tender spot under your tongue, along your gums, or inside your lip. It hurts and is irritated when you eat salty or spicy foods. Ice chips make it feel better and you keep rinsing your mouth with salt water so it will heal. Eventually it goes away, but a year later you have another one. What is it?
It is probably canker sore. Often mistaken for fever blisters or cold sores which occur on the lips or outer portion of the mouth, canker sores are shallow lesions that occur on the inside of the mouth. A burning or tingling sensation may be experienced prior to its development. The sores are usually round or oval with a red border and white or yellowish center. Fever blisters are caused by a herpes virus that gets reactivated under certain conditions. Fever blisters are contagious; canker sores for the most part are not.
Canker sores are also called oral aphthous ulcers and occur as one of three types. The most common are minor canker sores, which are small and tend to go away in a couple of weeks. Major canker sores have irregular borders and can take months to clear. Major canker sores often leave behind scar tissue. Clusters of lesions, called herpetiform canker sores, may merge into one large ulcer and tend to appear later in life.
Common symptoms that may appear in addition to extreme pain include fever and swollen lymph nodes. Listlessness, feeling a lack of interest or energy, may also be observed. A person's likelihood of developing the painful irritations includes a family history of having them, but the occurrences should decrease as a person ages. Anyone can get a canker sore, from adolescence to the elder years.
There many causes for the sores and may differ in each person's circumstances. An injury to the inside of the mouth from intense brushing, the toothpaste additive sodium lauryl sulfate, or the teeth while chewing; a reaction to the mouth bacteria or infection with the bacteria associated with peptic ulcers; autoimmune response to the oral tissues; or certain gastrointestinal and inflammatory conditions such as Crohn's disease.
The sores tend to heal on their own, but salt water or baking soda mouth rinses and over the counter numbing agents will alleviate pain and speed up the healing process. The MayoClinic website offers several easy self-care recommendations. Medical intervention for major lesions may involve steroid medications to decrease inflammation and antibacterial medications. Treating any underlying causes will help heal the current sores and prevent future occurrences.
