mouth ulcers

[fruitsalad]

my son seems to get them all the time, do you think he may be lacking in a vitamin and what would be a good treatment for them he's tried salt water but it does'nt seem to help.

[dot.hawkes]

yeah i think it is like getting a sty on your eye, maybe a multivitamin once a day along with an antiseptic mouth wash.

[fruitsalad]

strange that dot, i never got mouth ulcers, but i use to get loads of stys when i was a youngster.

[smudge]

Dentyl Mouthwash might help. We use it daily as a matter of course. It doesn't contain alcohol, so won't be too strong for your son.

Hope he feels better soon.

[bobtheturkey]

vitamin c tablets give me them or oranges so i reckon too much vitamin c does it for me, brushing my teeth does it too with me, i have had then since i was 4 i always have them i would feel strange if i didnt have them :)

[spudqueen]

My son gets mouth ulcers when he eats too many pickled onions!

[theprof]

The answer is lots of Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid).

Go to a pharmacy and ask for "Redoxon Double Action Vitamin C Effervescent Tablets". They contain 1000mg (1 gram) of ascorbic acid plus a small amount of zinc. Some years ago, Redoxon was available without zinc, but these no longer seem available.

If your son is aged between six and twelve, the dose is half a tablet dissolved in a tumbler of water per day. If he's over twelve, he can have a whole tablet dissolved in a tumbler of water per day.

Start him off on Redoxon as soon as the tingling of a mouth ulcer starts and it should help prevent the ulcer from fully forming. Healing of the lesion will also occur more rapidly.

If he has an ulcer right now, start him off on the treatment as soon as possible and treat until the ulcer has fully healed over. This should be less than a week.

Don't give him more than the recommended dose I've suggested daily and once the ulcer has fully healed, stop the treatment.

Once you're happy the treatment/prophylaxis works, you can buy 50mg Vitamin C tablets over the counter at pharmacies. Giving him one a day will probably keep them at bay.

[theprof]

Incidentally, I'd be all for getting the Vitamin C needed for this job from natural sources if it wasn't for some problems that might arise.

Oranges, other citrus fruits and orange juice contain citric acid. This acid has been show to have the potential to corrode the mucous membranes inside the mouth in sensitive individuals. So, drinking orange juice might well make matters a lot worse. Drinking a squash that contains added fruit juice could also do it.

A good few years ago, I went to a conference that lasted a week in Finland. While I was away, one of the children started the habit of taking orange squash to bed with him every night . When I returned, he had half a dozen ulcers in his mouth and they were all beauties. My wife, who knows a thing or two about medicine never lived it down!