Don’t try to eat pizza with jalapeno! Even if it’s a very mild pepper, the open sore in your mouth will not care. It is going to hurt!
Anyone have any good treatments, BTW? I’ve has at least one for the past few months (stress related, I think), and this one really firetruckin’ hurts. It’s right in the front on the inside of my upper lip, so every thing I eat or say irritates it. Been using the heck out of Anbesol which is effective, but not very long lasting. Thanks (owww).
Ugh.
Gargle with Listerene. It will sting quite a bit but, keep the stuff in your mouth till the sore stops hurting. Then you won’t feel the sore for a while and it will go away much faster.
I get canker sores every now and then on the inside of my bottom lip. The only thing that really helps me is an oral medication called Kanka that I get from the drug store. Usually lasts two to three hours with mine which can get rather big and painful.
I’ve never heard of the Listerine gargling; I’ll try that next time.
I don’t have any treatment hints, but maybe a prevention hint. I found that I would get them after eating foods with a lot of citric acid in them. So I now aviod orange juice and certain candy. Spree is one of my favs, but now I can’t eat them. 
My mother used to get pretty severe canker sores, and she found that taking L-Lysine (an amino acid), and I mean massive doses of it (about five 500 mg pills a day) got rid of the canker almost immediately.
On a less radical note, I started getting canker sores like she did a while back, and I started taking one L-Lysine pill (500 mg) a day, and they have gone. Also, I haven’t had any cold sores, as well.
IANAD. 
And finally, when I was a kid, we used to put a pinch of ground cinnamon on the canker sore; it would make it numb, and tasted good, too.
If you’re a chronic sufferer, change to a sodium laurel sulfate (SLS) free toothpaste. SLS is a foaming agent (detergent) found in most toothpastes and shampoos. Rembrandt makes a SLS free toothpaste that tastes pretty good. Biotene makes one too but I don’t like it as much. There have been a number of clinical studies that show that this will help the chronic sufferer. It certainly helped me.
Haj
When I used to get them, my mother gave me drops of something I think was called *GlyOxide. It seemed to work pretty well.
If you’re a chronic sufferer, change to a sodium laurel sulfate (SLS) free toothpaste. SLS is a foaming agent (detergent) found in most toothpastes and shampoos. Rembrandt makes a SLS free toothpaste that tastes pretty good. Biotene makes one too but I don’t like it as much. There have been a number of clinical studies that show that this will help the chronic sufferer. It certainly helped me.
Haj
If you’re a chronic sufferer, change to a sodium laurel sulfate (SLS) free toothpaste. SLS is a foaming agent (detergent) found in most toothpastes and shampoos. Rembrandt makes a SLS free toothpaste that tastes pretty good. Biotene makes one too but I don’t like it as much. There have been a number of clinical studies that show that this will help the chronic sufferer. It certainly helped me.
Haj
When I was little and got canker sores, my mom would rub salt into them. It hurt like a devil but got rid of them really quickly. Dries it out or something like that.
Vitamin B6 and B12 supplements will clear mine in a day or two.
And to make it feel better while waiting, keep the mouth and teeth cleaned at all times even if brushing hurts like hell. Then make a cup of tea, very strong, no milk or sugar. As soon as you can possibly stand the heat, take big mouthfuls and hold in your mouth for as long as possible before swallowing or spitting (sounds like another recent thread…) The heat will numb the area, and the tea will act as a slight antiseptic and astringent. It seems to take the gunk off the surface of the ulcer. Feels nice and relieved for a while afterwards.
I have about six ulcers at the moment, three at the injection site of a tooth filled last week (ALWAYS turned ulceracted, and bitten places - ouch) two below my front lower teeth and one right on my tounge just where it touches my teeth. Ouchy grouchy.
I have two ways to treat canker sores.
One
dump dry baking soda on wound. It will dry into like a little scab and keep it protected from other stuff going into your mouth.
(Warning it burns a little)
Two
dump salt directly into wound (this hurts A LOT) do this several times throughout the day and it will dry the sore up in no time.
My daughter get sthem from eating foods with a lot of acids like pinapple or tomatoes. I usually tell her to rinse with salt water and that helps clear it up. Simple but effective. I’ve asked the pediatrician and dentist…no one can tell me anything better to use…
I just came off two months with the worst series I’ve ever had. I think it was mostly due to a new diet where I was eating nuts every day, and more raw tomatoes than I usually eat. My dentist recommended some type of antibacterial rinse–peroxide and water, saltwater, or mouthwash would all be fine. He actually gave me a bottle of something used to help reduce inflamation in people with gum disease or irritation from braces. (It’s called Periodgard, but it’s a prescription thing.) It seemed to work a bit faster than plain peroxide. He also recommended the B-complex supplements, especially if you’ve been under stress.
I’m taking L-lysine and B-complex right now and haven’t had a new one for a few weeks. I still eat nuts, tomatoes and citrus occasionally, but not several times a day like I was.
I know I’ve posted this in related canker-sore threads, but I’ll chime in to say that since I’ve been taking Claritin, my chronic canker sores have virtually disappeared. If I go off the Claritin, they come right back. It must be that mine are an allergic reaction to certain foods, so perhaps it’s the same for some of you.
BTW, Claritin is a little steep. Loratadine, the generic of Claritin, is a lot cheaper, and it works just as well.
I tend to get these if I accidentally bite the inside of my mouth. I second the thoughts of keeping your teeth clean (brush more often) and use mouthwash (the strong stuff) until the pain stops. They seem to heal faster that way.
I use a Q-tip to dab peroxide right on the sucker, and rinse/repeat three or four times. The first time hurts, but at least it’s under control.
Then, to heal it fast as possible, I take a B-complex for a few days, brush maybe three times a day, and avoid sugary foods.
In a related advisory, do not eat jalapeño-flavored potato chips without eye protection. I tell you this from experience. No, really, don’t do it.
Rinse your mouth with Glyco-Thymoline four times a day until healed. Also, put five drops in 4 oz of water and drink it before bed until it’s healed.
Uh oh, I dealt with one in the same place a couple of months ago. If it’s really right by your lip, you need to resort to drastic measures, because doing the things people suggested alone is not going to help you- every time you talk or eat it re-opens. I had one for a week and nothing helped until I realized the following:
Buy yourself some straws, and some broth, and some instant breakfast. Drink your drinks and meals with the straw on the other side of your mouth, and try not to talk when it’s not necessary. After 24 hours or so of this (since you’re not chewing) your sore should be healed enough for canker remedies to actually work. After five days of it getting worse and worse, it was completely gone 36 hours after I started the no-food tatic.
on a related topic, somebody told me that canker sores were caused by the Herpes virus. I know that coldsores are, but I had never heard anything about canker sores. Do any of you know the cause of Canker sores?