Can oral ulcers heal faster by eating more spicy food? The dentist was both angry and amused when he heard this...

Oral ulcers are excruciatingly painful. But recently someone said: "If you have oral ulcers, you can eat more spicy food to 'stimulate it' and it will heal faster"...

Image source: Internet screenshot

As a patient and doctor who just experienced three consecutive bouts of oral ulcers and recovered from a serious illness, I felt both angry and amused when I saw this picture.

What? For all these years, there has been such great progress in the research of ulcers, a terminal disease?!

Similarly, statements such as "lack of vitamins will cause ulcers, so you should eat more fruits when you have ulcers" are also widely circulated among the families of oral ulcer victims. Although they have a little more "reason" than the "theory" mentioned above, the amount is not much.

I personally believe that these major discoveries of the type of folk "home remedies" are still not enough to replace broad, professional consensus, especially when it comes to treating diseases. It is absolutely impossible to "do the same thing as others do."

In fact, eating spicy food does not help oral ulcers heal . The idea that "eating spicy food - stimulating oral ulcers - the immune system takes priority" is also somewhat taken for granted.

The immune system does not have the macroscopic perspective we have when repairing tissues. If the more severe the injury, the earlier it will heal, then would it be easier to heal an ulcer if we cut it? Little do we know that all kinds of stimulation, whether chemical or physical, will make the ulcer deeper. After we have an ulcer, we should give it enough "peace". In order to reduce pain, we should try to avoid spicy and high-temperature food.

So how do doctors view oral ulcers?

How do mouth ulcers occur?

Oral ulcer is actually the abbreviation of oral mucosal ulcer disease, which mainly includes: recurrent aphthous ulcer, Behcet's disease, traumatic blood blisters and traumatic ulcers, radiation oral mucositis, chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis and Reiter's syndrome. Recurrent aphthous ulcer is the most common "oral ulcer".

Have you ever noticed that among a group of classmates, colleagues or friends with similar lifestyles, some people have repeated ulcers, while others have never known the pain of ulcers. So what are the causes of oral ulcers?

Uh, sorry... the cause of this disease is still unclear.

Yes, that's what the textbook says:

The cause of the disease is unknown. It is currently believed that the disease is the result of the combined action of multiple factors, but there are obvious individual differences... The genetic background plus appropriate environmental factors (including neuropsychiatric constitution, psychological and behavioral state, life, work and social environment, etc.) trigger an abnormal immune response and the appearance of RAU characteristic lesions... (*RAU refers to recurrent aphthous ulcers, which is our most common "oral ulcer").

We translate some of the theories we know so far into human language, which probably include the following:

1. Ulcers are hereditary, which is an internal factor that is almost impossible to change;

2. People who are under mental stress, in a tiring work environment, or in a high-pressure social environment are more likely to develop ulcers;

3. Immune diseases, digestive tract diseases, trauma, bacterial and viral infections can also cause ulcers - that's right, trauma not only cannot "cure ulcers", on the contrary, trauma is a possible cause of ulcers.

…(and more)

What do ulcers look like?

Oral ulcers generally manifest as recurrent round or oval lesions with the clinical characteristics of "yellow, red, concave and painful".

Yellow refers to a layer of yellow pseudomembrane on the surface of the ulcer;

Red means there is a red blood-filled band around the ulcer;

Concave, which means that the center of the ulcer is slightly sunken;

It hurts, no need to explain.

Of course, the most important point is that it has the characteristics of periodic recurrence and self-limitation .

There are various levels of recurrent oral ulcers. The one we encounter most often, which is also the main type, is mild recurrent ulcers.

Oral ulcer on the lower lip. Image source: Wikipedia

How do doctors “treat” oral ulcers?

Since the vast majority (75% to 85%) of oral ulcers are mild oral ulcers, they mainly appear on the lips, tongue, cheeks, and palate, and are all within 10 mm in size. The number of ulcers that appear each time is less than 10. From the perspective of treatment, for most mild recurrent oral ulcers,
It will get better even without treatment, but there is no way to cure it once and for all!

To say that it will heal even without treatment means that the ulcer will start healing in about 5 days after it appears, and will be completely healed in 10 to 14 days, and will leave no trace at all - no scar.

But there is nothing we can do to cure "recurrent oral ulcers".
If you have an ulcer and don't want to go to the hospital, you just need to "endure it", pay attention to oral hygiene, rinse your mouth more often, and avoid physical or chemical stimulation. The pain will gradually subside in about a week, and most ulcers will heal without treatment within 2 weeks.

But this does not mean that we should do nothing. The purpose of treating oral ulcers is not to "cure" them, but to minimize the number of recurrences, prolong the recurrence cycle, and reduce the pain caused by the ulcers. It is best to "accelerate" the healing process .

Doctors usually carry out targeted interventions in three aspects:

Hormone ingredients: such as dexamethasone, which can fight inflammation and promote healing;

Antibacterial ingredients: prevent secondary infection;

Analgesic ingredients: relieve pain.

The ulcer patches we often use often contain the above ingredients, and there is also a type of ulcer gel that can cover the surface of the ulcer and is not easily washed away, which physically isolates the ulcer surface and the oral environment, thereby reducing the pain caused by friction.

In these cases, you must see a doctor!

Most of us are not dentists, so if we encounter certain special situations, it is recommended that we see a doctor as soon as possible.

For example, if oral ulcers do not heal for more than a month, or even if some ulcers are very large, deep, and painful , you should be more vigilant to prevent malignant changes.

If ulcers occur one after another and basically never completely heal, or if ulcers are found not only on the oral mucosa but also in other parts of the body , you should see a doctor to rule out other diseases.

Having said so much, how can we prevent it?

As a veteran oral ulcer patient for more than 20 years, and also a dentist, I deeply understand one thing: how important it is to learn to coexist with the disease and face this kind of "incurable disease" calmly.

I wonder if you still remember the sentence mentioned earlier: "People are more likely to get ulcers when they are under mental stress, in a tiring working environment, or in a high-pressure social environment." Mental factors are a very important cause of oral ulcers, and anxiety will make the ulcer condition worse.

Since mental factors are a very important factor in the occurrence of oral ulcers, adjusting the rhythm of work and study, combining work and rest, and ensuring sleep time are the correct and very important prevention methods.

In addition, it is also important to maintain good eating habits, not be picky about food, and ensure a balanced diet.

Image source: pixabay

If you have broken teeth or dentures in your mouth, they will often cause ulcers (usually called "traumatic ulcers"), which should be repaired quickly.

References

[1] Chen Qianming. Oral Mucosal Pathology (3rd Edition). Beijing: People's Medical Publishing House. 2010

Planning and production

Author: He Jianliang, Chief Physician of General Dentistry, Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine

Review丨Li ​​Yufeng, Deputy Director of Medical Affairs, Peking University Hospital of Stomatology, Chief Examiner

Planning｜Yang Yaping

Editor: Yang Yaping