MOUTH ULCERS AND THE DIET TO BE FOLLOWED FOR THE PREVENTION

Mouth ulcers / 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.

Triggering factors of mouth ulcers:

  • Minor mouth injury from dental work
  • Hard brushing 
  • Accidental bite
  • 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 

Recurrent and non healing mouth ulcers may be an alarming sign in the following conditions such as:

  • Coeliac disease (a condition in which the body is unable to tolerate gluten)
  • Inflammatory bowel disease
  • Diabetes Mellitus
  • Behcet’s disease (a condition that causes inflammation throughout the body)
  • HIV/AIDS

Signs and symptoms of mouth ulcers:

Minor-Minor canker sores are small oval or round ulcers that heal within one to two weeks with no scarring.

Major-Major canker sores are larger and deeper than minor ones. They have irregular edges and can take up to six weeks to heal. Major mouth ulcers can result in long-term scarring.

Herpetiform- Herpetiform canker sores are pinpoint size, occur in clusters of 10 to 100, and often affect adults. This type of mouth ulcer has irregular edges and will often heal without scarring within one to two weeks.

Diet to be followed for the prevention:

1. It happens mainly due to the deficiency of vit c, iron, folic acid and zinc. So ensure a diet rich in above mentioned vitamins and minerals.

2. Have lime, amla, orange, sweet lime for the vit C supplementation.

3. Have whole green cereals, milk, spinach, brown rice and non veg food items for the zinc supplementation.

4. To meet folic acid requirements- have green leafy vegetables, organ meat(once in 10 days if you are not overweight and do not have nay high lipid profile parameter)eggs etc.

5. Avoid artificial sugars, cola, tea, chocolates, pineapple and tomatoes. Moreover try to avoid the triggering foods at the time of mouth ulcers.