Oral ulcers are something that everyone will experience in their daily lives. If you want to know the biggest feeling of people with oral ulcers, it can perhaps be described in one word: "pain". However, the severity of oral ulcers varies, so how do you determine if your oral ulcers are serious? This depends on the symptoms of oral ulcers. Next, let's take a look at the types of oral ulcers, symptoms of oral ulcers, the causes of recurrent oral ulcers, and the dietary taboos for oral ulcers. I hope the suggestions provided by the author can be useful to everyone.
Types of Oral Ulcers
1. Stomach and Spleen Heat Accumulation Type
Manifested as multiple ulcers in the mouth, swollen and painful wounds, bad breath, constipation, etc.
2. Wind Heat Toxin Type
Manifested as oral ulcers, mild pain, aversion to wind, and fever, etc.
3. Heart Fire Upwards Inflammation Type
Manifested as oral ulcers, mostly at the tip of the tongue, severe pain, etc.
4. Yin Deficiency and Internal Heat Type
Manifested as oral ulcers, mostly at the edges of the tongue, difficult to heal, etc.
5. Stomach and Spleen Weakness Type
Manifested as oral ulcers, long-lasting and frequent recurrence even after healing, etc.
Symptoms of Oral Ulcers
1. Tongue Movement and Sensation: Limited tongue movement can cause difficulties in chewing, swallowing, or speaking. Loss of sensation or numbness on one side of the tongue should be investigated as soon as possible.
2. Jaw and Teeth: Local swelling of the jawbone can cause facial asymmetry, and sometimes accompanied by abnormal sensations or loose teeth.
3. Plaques: When oral squamous cell carcinoma is superficial, it may appear as a superficial infiltrating plaque. At this time, it is difficult to distinguish it from leukoplakia or proliferative erythema without histological examination.
4. Ulcers: Oral squamous cell carcinoma often presents as ulcers. The typical characteristics are a hard and irregularly raised edge, and the base of the ulcer is uneven. The ulceration involves the entire tumor area.
Causes of Recurrent Oral Ulcers
1. Lack of vitamins and trace elements
The lack of trace elements such as zinc, iron, folic acid, vitamin B12, etc. can cause angular cheilitis. Many daily behaviors can lead to vitamin deficiencies, such as excessive washing of rice, long-term consumption of refined rice and flour, vegetarianism, etc., which can easily lead to a lack of B vitamins.
2. Mental stress
Work fatigue, mental stress, emotional fluctuations, and neurological disorders can also make oral ulcers recur. Work fatigue, mental stress, emotional fluctuations, and neurological disorders can lead to oral ulcers.
3. Gastrointestinal diseases
Recurrent oral ulcers may also indicate that your body is facing the threat of gastrointestinal diseases. From a medical point of view, many manifestations of gastrointestinal diseases include recurrent oral ulcers, because gastrointestinal discomfort can affect the digestion and absorption of many nutrients, thereby affecting the supplementation of many elements.
4. Hormonal fluctuations
Some women may experience oral ulcers during their menstrual period or before and after menstruation, which may continue to occur even after self-healing or treatment, causing unbearable pain. This is mainly due to an increase in progesterone levels and a decrease in estrogen levels.
5. Immune system disorders
Recurrent multiple oral ulcers, accompanied by genital ulcers, acne, folliculitis, eye discomfort, decreased vision, should be considered as Behcet's disease. When oral ulcers are accompanied by hair loss, facial purple-red patches, joint pain, etc., it may be caused by systemic lupus erythematosus. If oral ulcers are accompanied by persistent fever and frequent infections, hematological diseases should be considered.
6. Tumor
For older patients with a long history of oral ulcers, if deep and large ulcers appear, or unexplained oral masses, oral mucosal carcinoma should be considered.
Dietary Taboos for Oral Ulcers
1. Avoid eating spicy seasonings such as chili, vinegar, ginger, onion, star anise, etc. These foods not only induce pain but also stimulate the ulcer surface, making it further spread.
2. Avoid eating rough and hard foods such as fried ribs, fried chicken legs, nuts, etc. These hard foods can cause friction on the ulcer surface and aggravate the condition.
3. Avoid chewing gum, chocolate, tobacco and alcohol, coffee, hot foods, spicy barbecues, fried foods, etc. These are all things that can easily trigger or worsen oral ulcers.
4. Avoid eating ground foods such as bread crumbs, corn or potato chips, etc., because ground foods can easily adhere to the ulcer surface and affect the healing of ulcers.
5. Avoid eating hot foods. Boiling water or hot soup cannot kill the bacteria on the ulcer surface. On the contrary, it will cause irritation. Therefore, it is best to wait for the food to cool to room temperature before eating.
Oral ulcers are actually not scary. As long as you pay attention to your diet after discovering the above symptoms, oral ulcers can be controlled and healed. So as long as you pay more attention to these small common sense, you can prevent oral ulcers from finding you.
