What causes mouth ulcers?

Just because ulcer is linked with this word, it doesn’t define the severity of the condition but it should not be taken easy either. Mouth ulcers  also known as canker sores are normally small, painful lesions that develop in your mouth or at the base of your gums. They can make eating, drinking, and talking uncomfortable. Women (more than men), adolescents, and people with a family history of mouth ulcers are at higher risk for developing mouth ulcers.

Mouth ulcers aren’t contagious and usually go away within one to two weeks. However, if you get a mouth ulcer that is large or extremely painful or if it lasts for a long time without healing, you should seek the advice of a doctor.

Causes of mouth ulcer :

There is no definite cause behind mouth ulcers. However, some of them have been identified. These include:

• minor mouth injury from dental work, hard brushing, sports injury, or accidental bite

• emotional stress or lack of sleep, toothpastes and mouth rinses that contain sodium lauryl sulfate

• food sensitivities to acidic foods like strawberries, citrus, and pineapples, and other            trigger foods like chocolate and coffee

• lack of essential vitamins, especially B-12, zinc, folate, and iron

• allergic response to mouth bacteria

• dental braces

• hormonal changes during menstruation

• emotional stress or lack of sleep

• bacterial, viral, or fungal infections

In today’s fast paced life, due to irregular and unhealthy diet, one of the most common problems is acidity which is a result of skipping any of the meals from our meal regime. And, if not this, then we make it happen by choosing our meal which generally lacks the alkalising effect and drives our metabolism way beyond its domain where it can hardly perform its attributed function and ends up leaving the adverse effects on the various parts of the body. Its unfavourable effect in the oral cavity generally leads to mouth ulcers. 

Mouth ulcers are also caused by any cuts or injuries inside mouth. It leads to severe pain, which is constant, excruciating & becomes worse while eating, drinking or any act which has mouth involvement like singing, talking. 

The most common form of mouth ulcers is Recurrent Aphthous stomatitis. It mostly occurs on the inner cheek, inner lip, tongue, soft palate, floor of the mouth. However, there are many mouth ulcer gels available in the market like Ora-heal, Dentogel, Anabel and many more share the list. There is a product called QuikKool by Piramal which is superbly amazing in its quick pain relief action to treat mouth ulcers. It helps in providing cooling comfort.

QuikKool has:

• Lignocaine Hydrochloride- Acts on the nerve endings and relieves from the pain.

• Choline Salicylate- Soothes the wound and aids in healing faster.

• Benzalkonium Chloride- Provides anti-bacterial protection from further aggravation of the wound.