Homely Scientist

The easy answer to this question is that, nobody knows.  I know it’s a pretty lame answer but it’s the truth.  Mouth ulcers, or canker sores, are those painful sores in your mouth usually on the inside of the lips, gums, or tongue.  I suffered from mouth ulcers for most of my life and have tried just about everything to get relief and make them heal faster.

My dad and my dentist both prescribed a  steroid-based paste that I would smear on the all sores that was supposed to reduce the swelling and protect them so they can heal.

Really this treatment wasn’t entirely effective.  It didn’t give relief from pain and the sores didn’t really heal that much faster.  So if you suffer from mouthful ulcers, here are some things that you can do:

• Topical anesthetics like Orajel.  These help to relieve the pain, but you don’t want to use them too much and you have to be careful of not biting your cheek or tongue because your mouth is numb.
•  I’ve also used clove-based teething liquids that are intended for babies.  Clove oil use known for anesthetic and its antiseptic properties so it can help to relieve the pain and prevent secondary infection.

The other important thing about treating mouth ulcers, or rather preventing mouth ulcers, is figuring out what triggers them for you.  One of the big triggers is stress.  I know that when I’m stressed I’m more likely to get a mouth ulcer.

The other trigger for a lot of people for mouth ulcers is being sick.  When I had my last cold I had a couple mouth ulcers.  They were too bad but I hadn’t had any for a long time and being sick is what triggered an I’m sure.

Another big group of triggers, are the things you put in your mouth like food and an even toothpaste!  All the toothpaste first.  It is thought that sodium laurel sulfate, the stuff that makes toothpaste foam, is a trigger for many people.  So you can find and natural toothpaste that doesn’t have this and that might help.  I did this for a while, until I figured out that sodium laurel sulfate wasn’t really a trigger for me.

For me, beyond stress, the big triggers are foods.  While some people react to acidic foods, like tomatoes, for me my triggers are molasses, cinnamon, and black licorice.  If I eat more than just a little bit of any of these, I’m pretty much guaranteed to have a mouth ulcer within a couple days.

So really while there isn’t a cure are for mouth ulcers, and we still don’t know what causes them, by observing your environment and keeping track of what you eat you can limit the number of mouth ulcers that you get.  I’ve really worked hard to reduce the amount of stress and my life, and avoid the foods I know are triggers, so that generally I’m now ulcer free 90% of the time.  Which I think is pretty good.

It all comes down to, and this is where the science comes in, using the scientific method to test and build a hypothesis around why you get mouth ulcers.  When I did this I was able to quickly figure out what trigger its my mouth ulcers and how to avoid a period.

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