Canker sores (Aphthous) are considered to be an autoimmune disease with poorly understood triggering causes. These lesions occur exclusively on unattached or movable mucosa like the lip, cheek, floor of the mouth, tongue, etc.
Preventing these sores are often easy – consider these steps:
- Avoid triggering foods: nuts, chocolate, acidic fruits or foods that you can identify that tripper them
- Avoid trauma: toothbrush trauma, cheek, lip and tongue biting, etc.
- Avoid stress: now that is useless advice….who has the time to avoid stress?
- Avoid sodium lauryl sulfate: this is the foaming ingredient found in most toothpastes and mouthwashes. Consider using Biotene Dry Mouth toothpaste.
- Consider an antimicrobial mouth rinse: For prevention only – it does not work to treat the lesion and the alcohol stings!
- Change your toothbrush every month
For pain relief use one of these Over-the-Counter (OTC) products which coat the lesion or numb the ulcers or do both:
Coat and numb the lesion:
- Orabase with benzocaine
- Zilactin-B
- Kank-A
Coat lesion only:
- Liquid Carafate
- Benadryl/ Kaopectate (by Rx only)
- Canker Cover
