Canker Sores, not to be confused with Cold Sores, continuously ruin my life. If there is ANYTHING that I could change about myself..it would be the fact that I get canker sores. I’m jealous of the people that have never endured this pain, that at times, will prevent me from eating anything beyond soups/congee.
Canker Sores: are oral ulcers, that are ridiculously painful sores inside the mouth in places such as the inside of your cheek, inside of the lip, gums, throat, to even your tongue. Canker sores are also NOT contagious and heal in about 1-2 weeks.
Cold Sores: are fever blisters or a herpes simplex type 1, that are generally caused by a virus, are outside of the mouth, and are extremely contagious.
There is no real known reason to why people get canker sores. I have spent an unimaginable time researching and also talking to people at the pharmacy as to how to heal or prevent them, but the fact is, it is just unknown why canker sores appear, and there is no real cure as to how to get rid of them. Awesome… right?
I am the queen of Canker sores… undeniably. Currently, I have 6 sores, 1 on each side of my cheek, 1 on the back left of my throat, 1 below the back right of my tongue, 1 on the inside edge of my top lip, and a sore on the roof of my mouth…and no..I didn’t bite my lip or anything.. Throughout the years, I’ve tried so many remedies, and none seem to really work. Given..some might HELP..but overall, there is nothing out there that seems to cure/heal it. I’ve tried 90% of the over-the-counter stuff, and all that sh*t does is numb your pains for about 10minutes..after that, it hurts more than usual for me once the obnoxious numbing feeling is over.
Canker Sore Remedies that seem to help …if even a little:
- Washing your mouth regularly with mouthwash. This keeps your mouth clean, preventing bacteria and anything else from affecting the healing process of the canker sore
- Swishing around salt + warm water. This seems to relieve the pain for awhile. Although it hurts like crazy in the beginning, the the after effect feels wonderful..maybe because you endured so much pain from the salt? who knows..but it seems to works since the salt supposedly kills bacterial infection.
- Magic Mouth Wash (This is my favorite one that I recently discovered) – Mix 1tsp of Maalox + 1tsp of liquid benadryl. Don’t swallow, but swish this around your mouth, especially at the sores. Why does this work? it sooths irrirated oral tissues; the Benadryl helps reduce inflamation, while the Maalox coats and protects the area. This does a light numbing feeling to your mouth, but it feels a lot cooler/lighter than most other numbing medicines such as ora-gel and etc, which purely, and annoyingly numb your mouth.
- Hot water and honey- This does wonders! Another one of my favorites. Mix hot water and honey, then wait until it is cool, and then drink up like tea =D Some people would even recommend dabbing honey on a q-tip on the sores 2-3 times a day too. This helps sooth the pain, plus honey is an incredible antioxidant, antiseptic and provides cleasing properties to your health.
Oh..and I tried Vitamin B-12, since it was a highly recommended remedy…but I honestly don’t believe it works. I thought it did in the beginning, but I think that was just wishful thinking.
If anyone has any recommendations for me about how to get rid of canker sores, pleaseeee, let me know!
