Ram(patient name not included due to concern) 28 years male patient reported to our Malligai Dental Clinic and was very depressed and stressed.v The reason was he was not able to bear the pain because of his ulcer in the mouth and was not able to eat properly. Because of this, he had an unhappy situation with his family because the ulcer was recurrent in nature. This made him come to the dental clinic, he was worried whether this could be cancer. So he reported to our clinic. After checking the patient clinically and from the history of his complaint it was found to be mouth ulcer due to stress (ram is an IT professional). So we decided to give intense relief by using the latest technology of LASER  for treatment of mouth ulcer. So friends let’s see in detail about mouth ulcer and how happy the patient was after the treatment hoping this would help you to guide your family members and friends if they are suffering from ulcers or if any scenario as such happens in the future for you or your family members you can provide a good solution to mouth ulcers. 

What is mouth ulcer?

A mouth ulcer is also called a canker sore which causes pain and difficulty while eating, swallowing because of which you will not able to have a proper appetite which leads to weight loss. There are various types of mouth ulcer like stress ulcers, traumatic ulcers, denture ulcers, recurrent ulcers and ulcers caused by orthodontic wires. 

Where it's caused and what causes mouth ulcers?

Mouth ulcers usually occur on the floor of the mouth, gums, palate and tongues at times. At times it may be caused due to systemic disease like Crohn's disease, Gastric Esophageal Reflex. Certain medicines like aspirin, anti-inflammatory drugs cause mouth ulcer.

There may be many other factors which cause mouth ulcer they are as follows

1) Stress:

The stress is one of the major thing faced by everyone in day to day life it may be due to exam, work, fear and personal when we are stressed the hormonal changes occur which leads to change in mental activity and because of which many changes occur in our body out of which one of the changes seen is mouth ulcer. These stress can be prevented by the use of omega fatty acid thereby preventing an ulcer. Karthikeyan Murthykumar and Sarvana Kumar Santosh Kumar have proved in one of their research study that omega 3 fatty acid helps in prevention of stress in the rats this way use of omega 3 unsaturated fatty acid can prevent the mouth ulcer.

2) Fruits and Vegetables:

Certain citric acid fruits and vegetables like lemon, orange, pineapple and tomatoes as been proved by research to create mouth ulcer this is because they have acidic nature the constant intake of these fruits and vegetables creates the acidic environment in the mouth leading to the formation of painful mouth ulcer. 

3) Smoking:

It's been showed by research that smokers are more prone to mouth ulcer and tend to have multiple recurrent ulcers due to constant irritation than the normal healthy individuals. The ulcers have more tendency to convert to malignancy. So it's always advised to avoid the smoking and lead a healthy life.

4) Improper oral hygiene:

Maintenance of proper health, a regular visit to the dentist and having the dental problems treated at regular basis will help to keep the mouth ulcer away from us. So improper oral hygiene leads to the accumulation of foods and debris leading to mouth ulcer and various other oral health problem.

5) Denture irritants:

Most of the people at the old age have the problem of missing teeth so to replace the missing tooth they undergo for denture treatment as the age progress due to the ill-fitting denture and improper maintenance of denture leads to a constant irritant which may cause mouth ulcer, soreness at times called as denture stomatitis.

6) Sharp teeth:

In many unnoticed case there will be badly decayed tooth with sharp edges of tooth this sharp tooth causes constant irritation this leads to recurrent ulcers to occur in the oral cavity leading the old patient to be more discomfort in having there desired food and it may also lead to cancer at times if these sharp teeth are left untreated.The mouth ulcer can occur as a single large ulcer or as multiple small ulcers. 

How many days does it take mouth ulcer to heal?

Mouth ulcer heals within 7-14 days

What can be done to prevent mouth ulcer?

1) A regular visit to the dentist and scaling been done: 

The happy smile can be brought in the patient once when the pain created by ulcer is removed so regular visit of the dentist and having proper oral hygiene and scaling been done at year basis helps to avoid various oral health issues like mouth ulcers, bad breath and dental caries.

2) Vitamin B-12 tablets:

Vitamin B-12 complex as the best result in healing of ulcer tissues.

3) Smoking should be avoided:

Smoking is the process by which you kill yourself and you're surrounding the smokers are more prone to recurrent ulcer they tend to have large hollow ulcers which are sometimes called as nicotinic stomatitis so avoiding smoking helps to prevent mouth ulcer and lead a long life

4) Denture irritant caused by ill-fitting dentures :

In this modern era due to our food culture, most of us tend to miss our tooth but the missing of the tooth are multiple and common in the old age for which few patient undergo denture.  By day to day use of the denture there may be sharp points, ill-fitting or at times clasp extension may cause irritation to the gums causing the ulceration. So a correction of the denture or it's sometimes best to prefer implant instead of dentures if there is enough bone support.

5) The orthodontic wires as to be changed on regular basis:

In the technological world, the importance and outlook matter a lot either it may be school, college or workplace to have an attractive look so many young age people prefer orthodontic treatment. During this orthodontic patient may have certain difficulties like mouth ulcers due to extending wires so to have monthly once checkup with the orthodontist and changing the wires helps to prevent the mouth ulcers.

6) Have good hygiene and oral health:

Mouth ulcer prevents you from having your desired food you can always have your desired food but the maintenance of good hygiene, eating healthy natural fruits, vegetables and good oral health is necessary.

7) Salt water gargling can be done:

Salt water gargling every day is essential to stay away from various infection the salt water as anti-inflammatory

and antiseptic action this helps you to stay away from mouth ulcer.

8) Ointments like Hexigel, Smilodon and topical anaesthesia :

To have temporary relief from mouth ulcer and have short-term relief from pain caused by mouth ulcer ointments like hexigel, smilodent and topical local anaesthesia like prilocaine and benzocaine.

9) Mouthwashes:

Mouthwashes like Chlorhexidine, Xylitol and Listerine can be used to reduce the food accumulation, debris formed and this helps in preventing the occurrence of mouth ulcer by killing the acidic bacteria due to its alkaline nature.

Natural remedies for mouth ulcer

Researchers have proved the following natural remedies for mouth ulcer

1) Baking soda :

Baking soda is the most common product available at home and as alkaline nature so it neutralizes the acid produced by the bacteria so that helps in healing of the ulcer.

2) Aloe vera :

Aloe vera leaf as various medical issues like breast cancer and dental benefits so it's proved to prevent the ulcer so it's advised to dry the canker sore and apply the aloe vera leaf gel so that it helps in prevention of mouth ulcer.

3) Banana :

Researchers as been proved the use of banana paste helps in healing of ulcers.

4) Milk of magnesia :

Milk of magnesia as the concept of neutralizing the bacterial acid due to its alkaline nature.

5) Tea bags:

Green tea or bag of tea when used helps in increase of pH of saliva thereby preventing the bacterial acidic nature thus healing the mouth ulcer.

6) Saltwater :

Rinsing of mouth using salt water for 30 seconds neutralized the open mouth ulcers.

7) Manathakkali (Solanum nigrum) :

Manthakkali (Solanum nigrum) is the Tamil medicine followed by a long time chewing or sucking the leaf of manathakkali heals the mouth ulcer.

8) Honey :

Honey as such as the anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial effects thus when a drop of honey applied at the site of mouth ulcer helps in healing of the ulcer.

9) Tulasi:

  Tulasi is the most holistic medicine used in olden days due to anti-inflammatory nature for the prevention of mouth ulcer.

10) Xylitol chewing gums :

Xylitol is proved to be the best method of increasing the salivary pH thus helping to neutralize the bacterial acidic nature it helps in prevention of mouth ulcer. 

Misconceptions about mouth ulcers:

There is a misconception between oral ulcers and oral cancer may have doubt that I have ulcer thus it leads to cancer and few people have blind beliefs like covering the ulcer with pan powders, areca nuts and calcium prevents mouth ulcers.

Laser dentistry and mouth ulcer :

Recent trends in the treatment of mouth ulcer are laser dentistry it's the fastest way of getting healed from mouth ulcer it hardly takes around 15-20 seconds. The laser is the easiest little time consuming comfortable procedure for prevention of mouth ulcer.

So at last after explaining Ram about all the ways of preventing mouth ulcer he wanted quick relief from mouth ulcer and preferred laser treatment and he got relieved from mouth ulcer had happy time with family is stress, depression and worries went off that second when we relieved him the mouth ulcer pain using latest technology of laser treatment, now he his preferring laser treatment for his friends and others. Are you suffering from mouth ulcer and if your person preferring instant, easy, quick and painless relief from mouth ulcer contact and consult us at Malligai dental hospital we will make sure that you have a happy smile at the end of your treatment.