Unless you are very fortunate, you will have suffered with a mouth ulcer at one time or another. These painful little sores in the lining of the mouth can make even the most fundamental tasks, such as eating and drinking, a really unpleasant experience.

A mouth ulcer is essentially an exposed nerve that lies in the incredibly sensitive lining of your mouth. The break in the lining means that food, drink and toothbrushes come into contact with this nerve which leads to pain.

Many mouth ulcers are caused by accidental damage such as biting yourself, brushing too hard, burning or scalding your mouth with food and drink or even abrasion from braces and other dental repair work. These kinds of ulcers will usually clear up on their own after about a week or so.

Other kinds of ulcers can take a little longer to clear up. These are known as aphthous ulcers and are usually caused by stress, illness or a genetic predisposition to the condition and usually begin to appear around puberty. Aphthous ulcers usually take about two to three weeks to clear up.

Sometimes recurring ulcers may be caused by vitamin deficiencies. The most common deficiencies are iron and vitamin B12. City of London dentists will be able to offer dietary advice should you be suffering from recurring ulcers.

Other more serious causes of mouth ulcers include herpes, inflammatory bowel disorders and immune disorders but these are usually concurrent with other symptoms around the body.

With mouth ulcers, prevention is often better than cure. Maintaining good oral hygiene with regular trips to your city of London dentist, eating a healthy and balanced diet including vegetables and red meat, avoiding hot liquids and trying to keep stress levels to a minimum all help to keep the painful sores away.

For those suffering with ulcers, common treatments include swilling soluble paracetamol and iced water, camomile tea and licorice. Pastilles and gels that contain mild anaesthetics have also been widely available for many years.

London dental patients have been seen by the local London dentistry for problems dealing with ulcers or more commonly, canker sores. These ulcers are simply open sores in the mouth and can be caused by a variety of reasons. They appear as a white sore in the mouth. You can not pass an ulcer on to someone else as they are not contagious.
Causes of mouth ulcers include injuries sustained by bighting the cheek of tongue, an allergic reaction to something, an immune system response to some outside agent to include chemicals, large amounts of stress, a B12, iron, or folic acid deficiency in the diet, using mouthwash or toothpaste with SLS in it, viral infections related to herpes simplex or the foot and mouth disease, Han, problems with the intestines, and cancer of the mouth.
The lining of the mouth is opened due to one of the problems listed above and bacteria gets inside. The toxins from the bacteria are released and the cells around the ulcer are killed. This is the reason some ulcers get larger and hurt much more. If you find you have an ulcer, you need to see your doctor, if it does not go away within a week or two or if it starts hurting more. Ulcers that do not go away within a month could be mouth cancer in rare instances.
Simple mouth ulcers can be treated with a warm salt water gargle, using a teething gel for the pain, carmellose gelatin paste over the ulcer as a protective covering, and Paracetamol. Treatment should need no more than a week to heal the ulcer. If it does not, a trip to the dentist is necessary.