Greetings to all,

My name is Tom and I'm 34 living in Michigan and traveling to Asia-Pacific for work about 4 times a year.

I just got to China and while I was on the plane I noticed a canker sore on the top middle of my tongue. Now I have had them before and only thought it was a little weird because of the placement. I got in to Shanghai and got some sleep before my next flight to the little city I'm currently in. I woke up the next morning and man oh man did my mouth hurt. I suddenly have 2 on the top of my tongue, 1 on the tip left, 2 on the lower gum line and the roof of my mouth right behind my front 4 teeth is completely torn up. Now I don't know if it was something that I was eating that ripped my mouth up or not and the sores can be caused by stress (had them before, just not this bad). I don't have any way of looking at the roof of my mouth right now. I gotta go wander the streets to see if I can find a store that has a little mirror, but looking at my tongue they do look like normal cankers sores. Now nothing feels puffy or nothing, it just hurts bad. I've been taking Advil for the pain, but eating is a pain. Soup is a good thing. :-)

So I guess the question in my long winded story is there any correlation between anything bad (Cancer, etc...) and what I have been talking about?

I'm a long way from home to talk to my normal doctor right now and won't be home until 2nd week of May.

Thanks!

Tom

Hello tearl42

A mouth cancer that presents as an ulcer will not get better even after 3 weeks. So until then, just assume you are having mouth ulcers. They should heal in about 2 weeks. You can use an off-the-counter analgesic ointment (like Bonjela) to take away the pain before mealtimes and use a dilute salt mouthrinse for comfort.

Hope that helps.

Best wishes
Vinod

Hey Doc,

Thanks for your advice. I was pretty worried because I have never had this many of them show up at once in the locations. If it gets worse, I'll post again...

Thanks again!

Tom

Actually, I do have another question... I was doing a lot of reading the other night (jet lag bites!) and I read that the name brand Colgate toothpaste can also increase the frequency of mouth ulcers and there is this "remedy" call TCP Antiseptic that is sold in the UK. Have you ever heard of this? Does it really work?

Thanks!

quote:

Originally posted by Dr Vinod K Joshi:
Hello tearl42

A mouth cancer that presents as an ulcer will not get better even after 3 weeks. So until then, just assume you are having mouth ulcers. They should heal in about 2 weeks. You can use an off-the-counter analgesic ointment (like Bonjela) to take away the pain before mealtimes and use a dilute salt mouthrinse for comfort.

Hope that helps.

Best wishes
Vinod