How to Get Rid of Canker Sores

Canker sores are painful white sores that appear on your lip. Getting rid of them is a huge leg up since they’re annoying, painful, and appear in the most moist part of your body, which means when they emanate pain, it stings quite badly as though the wetness of your saliva adds to their sensitivity somehow, like an aggravating acid.

Antibacterial mouth ulceration treatments are your best bet when it comes to how to get rid of canker sores. It’s also better to avoid them altogether if you can help it, so to prevent them from happening to you, don’t let your mouth get in contact with the wrong kind of drink or food that could damage it. Burning your mouth with coffee that’s too hot can also be quite the shocker to your system and to your mouth in particular.

What Are Canker Sores Anyway?

They’re ulcers. When people talk about ulcers, they usually think of stomach ulcers, but ulceration also happens in your mouth and lips in the form of sores. Scientifically speaking, they’re known as Aphthous ulcers. They’re characterized by the burning sensation they cause as well as the tingling or pain within your oral orifice. These lesions are typically white or yellow in color with an inflamed red border that happens on the mucus membranes within the mouth itself. The causes of these ulcerations mentioned above aren’t scientifically proven and at the moment, it’s unknown where they actually come from.

Culprits Behind Canker Sore Formation

To reiterate, the common culprits of canker sores (correlation not equaling causation aside) include nutritional deficiencies, citrus fruits, stress, and food allergies, just to name a few. If you’re sensitive towards preservatives like benzoic acid, acidic foods like pineapple, and foodstuffs like nuts, tomatoes, and chocolate, then there’s a potential for you to get canker sores. There’s a link between all that and canker sores happening. Physical trauma from brushing too hard that causes abrasions or rough brace adjustments as well as tooth extractions can lead to canker sores as well.

Canker Sore Care, Removal, and Prevention 101

1. Taking It Out from Its Source: If you remove the source of the canker sore, then you remove the canker sore itself. These sores typically appear when you drink high citrus fruit juice, eat certain foods, and build up stress from your work or your family issues. Therefore, you should avoid or be careful about dealing with all of the above in order to avoid altogether (or at least aggravating existing) canker sores all over your mouth. Any particular oral abuse or misuse of your toothbrush can lead to this oral ulceration.

2. Canker Sore Oral Care: If you want to deal with canker sores, then you can do by fixing your dental hygiene, brushing more carefully, or watching out for deficiency in folic acid, iron, zinc, and Vitamin B12. Did you know that you can get a canker sore breakout from toothpaste, and not just rough brushing? That’s because most commercial toothpaste has sodium lauryl sulfate or SLS, which means you might want to switch to a formulation that’s less sore-causing. The more mindful you are of your oral care, the less likely you’ll get sores.

3. Be Careful of Longstanding Canker Sores: You shouldn’t leave canker sores untreated if they last longer than 10 days or a week, even though it’s normally not an issue. As far as ulcers are concerned, a stomach ulcer is far more serious than a small ulcer on your lips or your mouth. However, you should take a closer look at treatment advice when it comes to canker sores in order to disseminate which one is the best option for you. You should also take into consideration the degree of ulceration since the severity of the condition can lead to different treatment.

4. Hydrogen Peroxide: If there’s a noma, abscess, or infection already going on, then it’s time to bring out the big guns and buy a two-dollar bottle of hydrogen peroxide. You can find these at any drug or grocery store. You can use it by putting a capful of the agent and gargling it into your mouth in order to rinse away potential bacterial formation and infection, from your gums to your lips, then spit it out (don’t swallow it). It’s a special kind of disinfectant mouthwash you can water down using a little water if necessary. Regardless, unlike commercial mouthwashes, peroxide is super effective in terms of bacteria elimination.

5. Tea Tree Oil: Tea tree oil is renowned for its healing abilities. You can mix it with water at one part tea tree oil (10%) to every nine parts of water (90%) and then rinse your mouth with it once or twice daily. Instead of simply killing bacteria and germs inside the mouth, it also induces the healing process of your body, such that you can do some disinfection while at the same time making your body heal your mouth ulcers faster than usual. This is to be expected of a well-known skin disinfectant that’s been used in anti-pimple and skin rejuvenation products for years.

6. Salt Water or Alum: Another great mouthwash idea and canker sore cure is salt water. Just mix a tablespoon of salt with warm water then rinse your mouth with it throughout the day (as opposed to the limited times afforded by tea tree oil or hydrogen peroxide). This dries up your canker sore, which speeds up the healing process. As for alum, it’s found in the spice area of any grocery store and can be used by putting it on the lip or directly on the sore where it’s located for pain relief. Rise out with water and apply it twice daily.

7. Baking Soda: When it comes to canker sores, baking soda appears to be their most popular “Kryptonite” or weakness. You can use a solution made of a tablespoon of baking soda and warm water several times a day for mouthwash-type rinsing a la what you’d do with salt water. Within 24 hours, the pain of the canker sore should go away altogether. Baking soda mouthwash rinsing out the pain from canker sores is indeed a classic remedy that should be found in any guide to how to remove canker sores for good.

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