Mouth ulcers

inca2

I'm a long-time sufferer of mouth ulcers and have probably been through every product on the market (plus rinsing my mouth out with several bottles of brandy!) in my attempts to deal with the pain. Recently, I've been plagued with them almost constantly - up to 10 at a time, with maybe only a day or two's relief before they start to pop up again. I've never experienced anything on this scale before. Eating, drinking and speaking are all excruciating and I'm not getting any relief at all - on top of becoming dehydrated and eating very little. I'm currently being investigated for inflammatory bowel disease so will hopefully have a longer term solution to this soon but just wondered if anyone out there has any ideas on what else might be worth a go? Suggestions on home remedies etc. all welcome. Also just felt the need to vent a little and wondered if there are others out there with a similar issue. If you haven't suffered with this yourself, I don't think you can understand the eye-watering pain involved!

rubadub

I used salt water with success, I had some overpriced stuff from the chemist that you were supposed to paint on with a little brush. But depending on the person they might not be able to keep it there long enough, i.e. it just gets washed away with typical mouth movements.

I also had lozenge things but they would not stay put at all. I have used hydrogen peroxide too. I would carry a bottle of salty water and take it whenever I could, I would hold it in my mouth and then eventually spit it out but not rinse after, just keep it salty, or else just rinse out with more of the salt water.

farmerwifelet

take l llysine - its an essential amino acid. Big horse tablets but you can squish them and take in a yoghurt. they help the ulcer heal quicker.

johnny_adidas

Having been through 3 years of leukaemia, this is a very big side effect of treatment.

I have found that using saline (salt water) to rinse and then mycostatin drops RELIGIOUSLY 4 times a day keeps them at bay for the majority of time the immune system is low.

When I'm neutrapenic or a sore develops I swap from saline to Kin (KINgingival).

Finally when Im suffering, I don't find difflam or any others of any use and have to get a pink liquid (morphine based) called BMX mouthwash which numbs the mouth enough to get through a meal. This would require a prescription though and mixing up by the chemist.

Mycostatin & kin may also require a prescription so maybe start with the regular salt water rinsing

lenny palmer

I've had them on and off most if my life. Nothing compared to what you have. I've often wondered if there is an underlying cause like lack of sleep or not eating healthy enough. For me neither getting better sleep or eating better seemed to cure this, helped a bit but no cure. What I've found that has worked for me is a spoonful of manuka honey most days.

I have noticed that when I bite myself as I chew food I'd almost always leads to an ulcer, but lately this is not the case. For me it seems to work

Conor Bourke

I was crucified with them for years, to the point that I would get such severe ulcers that they'd spread down my mouth and into my throat. The agony, lanterin' Jesus. During the period of time that I wore braces on my teeth, I'd get stinkers on the inside of my cheeks when I'd get my wires changed if they weren't cut close enough and I didn't put wax on the ends. I'll never forget it! They were always at their worst when I was run down (which was a lot of the time when I was studying, partying and working two jobs all at once)

The only thing I ever found truly useful was a thick paste called Adcortyl in Orabase but I don't think it's made anymore. I used to get it OTC in the North. You've been given great advice re: Mycostatin, Kin mouthwash, saline etc. An old wives remedy my aunt told me was to put mustard on them. It burned like billy-o for the first minute or so, I'd be bawling crying when I'd do it but it seemed that afterwards the pain would be much less severe while they healed. Swishing/gargling a disprin could help too, I used to do that when they'd go down into my throat.

I got my tonsils out this week 10 years ago and it made an enormous difference to my overall health. I went from constant sore throats, coughs and colds and a poxy mouth full of sores, lurching from antiobiotic to only needing antibiotics twice since, both only for dental issues and few if any ulcers. Certainly none on the scale of what I would've been used to anyway.

I'm not suggesting you go get fairly significant surgery to cure your mouth ulcers, that's purely anecdotal on my part but maybe go to your GP for an all-over check-up to outrule any vitamin/mineral deficiency (which would be understandable given you're being investigated for inflammatory bowel issues) and just try to rest your mind and body a little.

Best of luck!

jigglypuffstuff

Try oralmedic, it will burn immensely for a few seconds but it burns the ulcer shut..when it cannot get damp, it won't be painful

Hope this helps...I'm regularly plagued by them

arybvtcw0eolkf

I was scourged with the during my teens and early twenties, and tbh I tried everything and nothing worked better than rinsing with warm salty water.

inca2

Thank you all for the fantastic suggestions. I'm sorry that there are so many of us out there suffering with these monsters. I think anyone who doesn't suffer with them really doesn't understand the agony. I've tried taking Lysine and using salt + water, TCP, Corsodyl, every Aloclair/Medijel/Bonjela product under the sun, brandy (!) and the likes of Difflam with very little relief...

I was in the US recently and discovered something that has been working quite well for me since, thank god. It's a paste called Orajel for "severe toothache" - it has benzocaine in it so it seems to combine the best of BMX and the likes of Orabase. It reminds me of the kind of thing the dentist would put on the gum before an injection. I bought a couple of tubes so hopefully they will keep me going for a while! I'm quite deficient in iron and folate at the moment (which is part of the reason for suspecting an inflammatory bowel disease) so I'm sure that is not helping the situation. There is no doubt that stress reduction is a massive help too!

Thanks again for all the replies, some great suggestions that I will definitely try!

Kalimah

My sister was plagued with mouth ulcers for years until the doc suggested vitamin B injections and she was cured more or less immediately. From what the doctor suggested we believe she has pernicious anaemia which prevents the absorption of vitamin B in the stomach and upper intestines. She gets the injections every 3 months or so. Worth checking out OP. .
I remember being on holidays with my sister 25 years ago in Kerry and begging a local chemist for Ponstan for Jan's pain. It was truly dreadful.

madmaggie

OP, have you ever been checked out for coeliac disease? I'm coeliac for over twenty years, and know if I get mouth ulcers, it's down to inadvertantly ingesting gluten. Just a thought.

inca2

madmaggie wrote: »

OP, have you ever been checked out for coeliac disease? I'm coeliac for over twenty years, and know if I get mouth ulcers, it's down to inadvertantly ingesting gluten. Just a thought.

Thanks for your suggestion, thankfully I’ve been checked for that! My doctor seems happy that they are just a consequence of ulcerative colitis, which I was diagnosed with back in July. Been doing ok the last few months since my condition has been under better control thank god. Long may it last!