If you are one of those lucky people to have never suffered through one you can just stop reading righhht now!
I've had to fight off canker sores for as long as I can remember. It was really bad in high school as the changing hormones and stress contributed to a painful mouth every time there was a band concert. (Ever try to play a clarinet with two canker sores? Not fun).
I'd tried all those old folksy remedies, yogurt, gargling with salt, anything to alleviate the pain and get those stupid things gone. (Oh and if you still get some you have to get KANKA, that stuff will numb half the side of your face).
Then the wedding came up and I realized I needed to take some drastic measures or all that stress was going to make me one miserable bride thanks to my mouth. After some serious hunting I found an interesting solution to my problem: toothpaste.
Special toothpaste designed for all of us canker sore sufferers. The sad thing is that what makes it so special isn't what's in it but what's left out - SLS to be exact. SLS (or sodium lauryl sulfate) is what causes the foaming reaction you get with toothpastes, it also causes small microscopic tears in your mouth (which considering what I use it for in the lab it makes a lot of sense).No big deal for a normal person, but if you suffer from canker sores even the tiniest tear could turn into a full blown ulcer. And everytime you brush your teeth you just make it worse.
I've been using this stuff for about a year now and I've only have about 5 or 6 sores, compared to me averaging about 5 or 6 a month without. And those I did have cleared up a lot quicker than ever before.
It is damn expensive (about $7 a tube) and impossible to find (walgreens.com or drugstore.com are the only options I've seen so far) but for me it's worth the price to not have to suffer through eating, talking, or just sitting quietly trying to forget my mouth is in horrific pain.
Damn I sound like an infomercial, but really it's rare I find stuff that I just love and have to have and this is one of them.
Toothpastes without lauryl/laureth sulfates are relatively easy to find at health food stores and cost less than $7.
ReplyDeleteI had never heard of this before, thanks for posting! I have suffered from canker sores since I was a kid and have also tried just about everything.
ReplyDeleteLuckily my local Walgreens carried this toothpaste, so I bought some this morning and am going to try it out!
My dentist also prescribed me a dental paste called Triamcinolone Acetonide; I put it on just before bed. I think it really helps the healing process.