I have a large canker sore right now, inside my bottom lip, right where the web of flesh connecting the gum to the lip meets with the lip. I’ve had canker sores before, but not like this. Because of its position, my bottom teeth keep scraping against it when I chew and talk, and it just keeps getting larger. The pain is excruciating.
I’d love to get a tube or Orajel or some such thing, but they’re awfully expensive; about $10 for a tiny tube (I’m seriously broke till mid-week). Are there any natural remedies I could try that might quell the pain for the time being?
Funny you should post this; I’m dealing with a bitch of a canker right now.
If you don’t want to shell out for some OTC medication (pricey, but worth it for controlling the pain, I find), try rinsing your mouth with a baking soda solution 3 or 4 times a day. A hydrogen peroxide solution is also supposed to be good, and some die-hards even go for salt water. It won’t control the pain like a topical anesthetic will, but it should help somewhat and will probably make the sore heal faster too.
It’s not that I don’t want to pay for the numbing stuff; I simply can’t afford it right now. I have about $5 to my name till Wednesday. But thanks for the suggestions; I might try the baking soda thing.
No problem. It sucks to have to worry about money when you’re in pain.
With this last one I’ve even tried applying baking soda directly to the sore. It hurts, to be sure, and while I can’t be positive I think it’s helped to hasten its demise. You can also try salt if you have the constitution for it. (I can’t imagine putting salt directly on a canker.) Good luck!
You might want to try changing your toothpaste as well. I used to get the things all the time, then about a year ago I got a number of them that lasted for weeks and they really hurt. So I went looking for a solution and found this. So I switched and used a toothpaste that doesn’t have the SLS in it and with in days they went away. Since the switch I have gotten only one sore in my mouth, and I think that was from too many suckers that week.
The hardest part about switching toothpaste is that all the major stores around me only have toothpaste with SLS in it. I had to go to a natural market to find it. You might want to see if you have changed toothpaste, what happened to me, and also for right now try and either not use toothpaste at all, or use baking soda until you can try some new stuff.
I don’t think it’s my toothpaste. I haven’t had a canker in the longest time. Which brings to mind, Is there any real known cause for them? I used to think it was caused by injury to the mouth, but I can think of plenty of instances where I accidentally bit the inside of my cheek/lip and it never turned into a canker.
"If there is no underlying medical problem, sauerkraut juice is a home remedy worth considering. A tablespoon of juice gets swished around the mouth a few times a day and then swallowed. One doctor who, like your daughter, suffered recurrent severe canker sores was skeptical when we suggested this, but found it worked extremely well. He was so pleased he and his chemist son are doing some research on its ingredients.
If sauerkraut juice is too weird or unpalatable, there are a few other options. Some readers recommend a pinch of alum on the sore; others prefer tannin or instant iced tea. L-lysine and acidophilus supplements from the health food store also have their supporters. "
I used to get sores from braces, so I imagine your rubbing against it is quite irritating. I always packed a tissue with salt and held it on as long as I could take it. And the wax helped me from rubbing it. I don;t know any “homemade” wax alternative that you could use. Maybe just stick a cotton ball in there or something.
It may be a viral infection, but they can also happen when you accidentally bite the inside of your mouth. I’ll have to try switching toothpastes - I seem to get my share of canker sores. My share, and your share, and probably the shares of a few others…
As for remedies, try a little garlic. Cut a clove of garlic and dab the cut end directly on the canker sore. Oh, it’s a whole new adventure in pain, believe me. But the sore gets numb after the pain subsides, and I’ve found that it can cut the healing time in half. But if yours is as bad as a few of mine have been, Goddess, then not even the garlic will save you from up to two weeks of sheer frustration.
Anecdotally, I’ve heard that the lysine supplements help, but I’ve never tried myself.
I’ve tried everything and haven’t found any that seem to work: aspirin, baking soda, lemon juice. They all seem to operate on the theory that if it hurts, it’s good, so these must be extremely good. I have not noticed any reduction in how long they last, and they definitely don’t go away quickly. The only positive that I’ve found is that it feels really good after you finally take the aspirin/soda/juice off. Sort of like how it feels good to quit hitting your thumb with a hammer.
You’re probably thinking of cold sores, which usually occur outside the mouth, are caused by a herpes virus.
Canker sores occur inside your mouth, and are most likely not viral. They are probably caused by an overreaction of the immune system.. Unlike cold sores, they are not contagious.
My remedy, FWIW, is to carefully dry the area, then apply straight hydrogen peroxide (I mean, whatever concentration comes in a bottle from the drugstore, not 100% H[sup]2[/sub]O[sup]2[/sub]) with a Q-tip. This seems to shrink them up and heal them pretty quick, and isn’t as unpleasant as swishing with hydrogen peroxide.
If you do get them with any frequency, you really should try switching toothpastes. I’m usually plagued with them in the winter time, but since I switched to an SLS-free toothpaste on advice in a SD thread a couple months ago, I’ve been canker-sore free, even though I’ve chomped the inside of my lip a couple of times.
I used to get canker sores all the time. Really bad ones. Recently I decided to get braces as an adult. One of the things I was worried about was getting a canker whilst having braces. My orthodontist recomended daily supplements of Lysine. I bought some at the local vitamin shop. Since then I have had only 1 bad canker over the past six months. Normally I would have at least one a month that caused me anything from mild pain to agony. Give it a shot.
If you had money, I’d recommend ‘Glyoxide’, a liquid treatment you can get OTC at any well-stocked pharmacy. It’s been around for ages - my mom had my brothers and I use it when we were kids, so at least 30 years on the market. But it’s about $5 the bottle.
I used to get the little bastards all the time. Typically, I would have from 5 to 8 of them at all times.
Then one day, I started taking Claritin for hives, and wonder of wonders, my canker sores all went away. I went off the Claritin just to see if it was just my imagination, and the sores came back. Back on the Claritin, and the sores disappeared again. I’ve been taking it ever since. But I buy the generic version from Costco and it’s a lot cheaper.
In the meantime, Amazon Floozy Goddess, you can get some relief by putting some form of antacid, like Maalox or something similar, on the sore. It doesn’t numb it, but it takes away a lot of the sting. The sensation is similar to rinsing lemon juice out of a cut; it doesn’t stop all the pain, but it’s a temporary relief. Must have something to do with neutralizing acid in your saliva or something.
I know that I use strong black tea when I have a sore throat, and it helps sooth it. I have also heard of people using tea leaves as a poultice to draw out infections on the skin, and that since tannic acid is used in the hide tanning bussiness it must be fairly interesting as a compound - it seems to change something in the skin tissue…
Back when I had canker sores from braces I used campho-phenique on them, and it worked better than the other waxy stuff …just put a drop on a q-tip/swab and dab onto the canker sore. Stung like hell for a few minutes and then went numb. My mom preferred oragell, but we both used salt water as a mouthwash.
