Within the past few months, I've had about four canker sores develop. They go away on their own after a week or a little longer, but they REALLY hurt while I have them. Before I've just gotten them on the inside of my lip or cheek, but now I have one on my gum and it is fairly painful.

I've tried a couple of different creams for canker and mouth sores, but I find that within less than an hour, they don't work anymore. (I guess my saliva washes them away.) Can anyone suggest anything else that will help with the pain?

Also, are there any certain foods I should avoid in order to promote healing? Salt makes the sore burn, so I know to avoid that, but is there anything else I should watch out for?

Thanks!

Maximum strength Orajel liquid is fantastic for tooth and gum pain. It works almost immediately. I have never used it for canker sores, though. Basically, it is almost the same thing that a dentist uses to numb your gums before a shot. The active ingredient in Orajel Maximum Strenght is Benzocaine ; Orajel is 20% benzocaine.

Healing - Take a lot of Vitamin C. My wife and step-children used to get canker sores all the time. I suggested C, but she laughed at me. (She was an RN, and, of course, I knew nothing about medicine.) The kids used C, and didn't have problems again, or at least, for several years. She finally started taking them, and that was the last I heard about canker sores. (But she never admitted taking it. I counted the pills. SOMEBODY was taking one extra a day. )

C is water soluble, so there is very little danger of an build up. Your body doesn't store excess C; it just, uh, flows out.t

Here's some more info on canker sores (aka aphthous ulcers):

Health Central

Animated-teeth (canker sores - home remedies)

Wikipedia - Aphthous ulcer

DG's advice about benzocaine is reasonable. I'm not so sure about vit. C but at least it will do no harm.

Note that they are more common in women than men (though just about everybody gets them), they can run in families, and can be caused by over-vigorous brushing of teeth. They are definitely annoying but generally totally benign. As the saying goes, with treatment they go away in as little as 7 days, while without treatment they may last as long as a week.

I used to have them, and they did run in my family. I found the following useful to shorten there stay in my mouth:

Dab hydrogen peroxide on them with a Q tip

Get a tin of bag balm, if they sell it in your area, and apply it.

I was getting them regularly for a while, and started taking a garlic supplement (Kwai garlic, but any supplement will do) and found that I got them much less. I'm not saying it's linked, that's just what I found personally. Also, Lysine seems to promote healing.

Thanks all! I'll definitely give some of your suggestions a try.

You need an ointment that will form a physical barrier over the sore. There was a brand of Zilactin that not only did this but had a high concentrate of tannic acid that helped to heal the canker sore. Unfortunately the FDA took it off the market. Zilactin-B would be the closest replacement and it also creates the same adhesive barrier that the original one did.

As for foods to avoid, keep away from foods with high acid content (i.e. citrus, tomatoes, corn, beans, coffee, grains) and avoid spicy foods. But to tell ya the truth, if you apply the Zilactin-B - once that barrier is formed you can go hours without discomfort!

There's also Abreeva, which is more for cold sores and expensive, and a cheaper Kanka ointment. And as another aside, I was fighting a mouth sore recently and even had a prescription for it that did not seem to be helping at all. I drink tea every day and was drinking black tea, lemon tea, raspberry tea, but once I started drinking green tea it cleared up quickly. Again, maybe the prescription just needed some time to kick in, but the tea seemed to help -and the warmth of it was soothing as well.

It probably was the tanic acid in the tea that helped you.