I’ve got five of the little cunts at the moment. I’m always fucking getting them.
HELP!!
- Get a soft bristle toothbrush and brush gently; brush twice as long if you must. Most canker sores start as injuries.
- Chew carefully; most of my worst canker sores started with me biting my lip while eating too fast.
- Experiment with a toothpaste that doesn’t contain sodium lauryl sulfate; while the horrors of SLS are greatly exaggerated, some people are sensitive to it.
- Watch what you eat; some people get canker sores from food sensitivity. I, for instance, must be careful about walnuts.
I would especially emphasize #3. I used to have a horrible problem with canker sores until I stopped using gelled toothpaste.
I have no idea but I can tell you that Alum kills 'em dead. Get a little bottle of Alum from the spice aisle at the grocery store, moisten a Q-Tip and dip it into the Alum and then apply a good dose of it to the canker sore for approx. three to five minutes. By the next day (in my case anyway) they kind of just become dead. They’re still there but they don’t hurt anymore and just slowly go away. I’d heard of the Alum cure for years but for some reason never got too hepped up about trying it, then a good friend swore it worked great for her so I got some and have had no fear of canker sores ever since.
I second the idea about experimenting with toothpaste. My brother used to have terrible problems with canker sores. It wasn’t unusual for him to have ten at once. For unrelated reasons, he switched to Tom of Maine’s strawberry toothpaste. He abruptly stopped having canker sores. It wasn’t SLS, because Tom’s has that. We theorize the mint was the cause.
Thirding the toothpaste suggestion. I don’t get many of the little suckers, but my middle daughter used to get them all the time, until I switched her to a ‘natural’ toothpaste (Tom’s of Maine in her case). Since then, she almost never gets them.
I couldn’t find an alternative toothpaste I liked, so I just use straight baking soda. Pour about a teaspoon or so in the palm of my hand, wet the brush and dip it into the baking soda and brush. Tastes like crap, but works as a fantastic dentifrice. I do know that there are people out there that do the same with plain salt as well.
My husband uses Rembrandt toothpaste for canker sore sufferers. It’s hard to find but some Walgreen’s carry it and, as you see, drugstore.com. He has had bad canker sores all his life and this stuff helps a great deal.
For some number of years, on the advice of my dentist, I used baking soda turned into a paste with hydrogen peroxide. I got the ‘minty’ taste I like afterward, by using Listerine Vanilla Mint flavor.
I know some people use hydrogen peroxide as a mouth wash. You take one part of hydrogen peroxide to one equal part of water and swish it around your mouth. Then spit it out, don’t swallow.
BTW for when you get them, my dentist told me a Tums applied directly to the spot works wonders - and it does.
I was under the impression that baking soda was much too abrasive to use on your teeth regularly.
I find I get them when I’ve been biting the inside of my lips. They don’t necessarily pop up in the bitten spots, which is weird. But when I’ve been nibbling at my lips a lot, I’m almost guaranteed to develop a canker sore within a couple of days.
Hmmmmm. To me, this is a ‘chicken and egg’ (which comes first) situation; it’s possible you’re biting the inside of your lips because you’re subconsciously feeling a tingle that precedes the sores, no?
I put a pinch of salt on canker sores. It hurts like the blazes of hell but it makes them disappear usually within a day or so.
Sorry to hijack this thread but several years ago, I was sitting at the bar inside The Magic Castle in Los Angeles and complained about a painful canker sore.
The bartender mixed up something from behind the bar and handed it to me. I drank and – poof – the canker sore was MAGICALLY gone! I begged him to tell me what he had given me but being at the Magical Castle, he had to put this whole aura of mystery behind it.
What liquid could he have mixed up from a bar supply to instantly get rid of a canker sore?
A strong salt rinse usually helps, too. I’ll fourth or whatever looking into a toothpaste change - my bugaboo is tartar-control - it makes the whole inside of my mouth slough off, which is just plain weird. I use sensitive toothpaste (usually Colgate), and don’t have much of a problem with canker sores now. There is also a thick, gummy paste that you can buy to put on them and keep your tongue and saliva out of them - I can’t think of the name of it, but it works like a damn. I have crooked teeth on the bottom, and sometimes a tooth will keep aggravating a canker sore, and that gummy stuff protects the sore to allow it to heal.
Fourth… or fifthing the toothpaste idea. I use the Rembrandt. Swear by it.
Also - at night - I swear by these canker covers. I am not a fan of any other brand or any other covering method (particularly the nasty liquid that firms up).
As for not getting them? I get them in times of stress and sleep deprivation. As long as I avoid those two things (yeah, right!) then I get so few canker sores that I forget that I get them.
Kenalog in orabase gel? Works for me. Rx only, as it’s a mild steroid. I think.
I thought I was going to be the first to mention toothpaste. My stepson JP was getting terrible canker sores–then he switched toothpastes and they disappeared almost immediately.
Hey, at least I know he’s actually brushing his teeth.