Causes and Symptoms of Canker Sores
December 7, 2009
Canker Sores
Canker sores are otherwise called aphthous ulcers which are the painful sores developed inside the mouth. They can be inflamed white or yellow open sore encircled by red inflamed area. Canker sore may appear on your mouth at any age and you can see them on the inner side of the lips, inside of the cheeks and also on the tongue and palate. Sometimes you may get canker sores even on the bottom of the gums.
Causes for Canker Sores
Deficiency of certain minerals and vitamins like iron, vitamin B12, folic acid etc has a major role in causing canker sores. At times food allergies leads to canker sores as food allergies may expose the soft tissues of the mouth to various chemicals. Canker sores appear in people who have autoimmune disorder and in such people the white blood cells attack certain points in the mouth and there develops the canker sores. People who have celiac disease or gluten intolerance are also found to develop canker sore when they eat food containing gluten.
Canker sores are often inherited through families too. More than these it may also appear at times of emotional stress especially when there is a hormonal imbalance or at the time of menstruation. Some drugs like beta blockers, anti-inflammatory medications etc are also reported to cause this disorder. Certain tooth paste that consists of sodium lauryl sulfate may also leads to canker sore.
Symptoms of Canker Sore
Canker sores appear in different forms among these minor canker sore is commonly seen in people. In minor canker sore the sores appear in oval shape with a maximum diameter less than 10 mm. most of the minor sores have 2 to 3 mm size and the center of the sore appears white. These sore may cause pain and it may subside in 3 to 14 days. There is less chance for them to get infected.
Major canker sores are found to have deep ulcers of more than 1 cm. These ulcers are having irregular margins and are painful too. It may take almost 3 to 6 week’s time to subside and may also leave scars.
Another type of canker sore is called herpetiform as it resembles the herpes disease. This type consists of clusters of small pinhead sized shallow punched out lesions having a diameter of about 1 to 3 mm. these clusters of sores then unite together to form a large ulcer of irregular shape. This type of canker may subside in about 10 days.
Canker sores may repeat in some people yearly while in there’s they may be few outbreaks in a year.
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