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[winston]

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[winston]

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[Stefan Kac]

Try rinsing with very weak salt water after eating, especially acidic or very salty foods. I've found that this can prevent an accidental cut or bite from becoming a full-blown sore. When they develop on their own, there seems to be no way to change their life cycle, at least in my case. Also, do yours take the form of small red bumps or larger white areas with a hole in the middle? I believe there is a distinction between canker sores and mouth ulcers, and they can have different causes.

[Tom B.]

Nobody knows the exact cause of canker sores, but they are definitely brought on by irritation within the mouth. WebMD has a nice little article on it at

http://my.webmd.com/content/article/66/ ... 9002_to_03

I've had frequent canker sores for a number of years, but it was only mildly annoying until I started playing tuba in January. Then it became real annoying. So I started looking for sources of irritation. Through trial and error I learned that jalapeno peppers and salsa (I love them) were not a problem. However, it turned out that a day or so after eating chips, I tended to get sores. So now I avoid them. Also, I was using a rather harsh toothpaste, so I switched back to Colgate regular flavor (the white stuff). In the past 3 months, I have not had a canker sore.

You might try experimenting with things that could be irritating your mouth--and try to eliminate the culprit(s).

[Paul S]

Decades ago when I was a freshman at UC I played a couple years with the marching band there and developed cankers from playing a ton of hours each day on several different horns. I was using the same Helleberg mouthpiece that I had used for several years and continued to use for another decade.

Several of the older CCM tuba & trumpet players who also played with the marching band took me out to Skyline Chili and had me pour a thick layer of McIlhenny's Tobasco across a cheese coney and eat it with the sauce applied to the canker. it HURT but then immediately went numb. They told me it was passed down to them as a musicians cure. The next evening the canker was almost completely gone.

Ever since that time when I get a rare canker I just apply a little tobasco on the the finger tip and glaze it across my lip and typically within 24 hours it has disappeared to where I can play without it bothering.

Everyone I have mentioned this to have told me similar results. You might give it a try as I really do believe in it for me and at worst you will only get a instant rush of pain followed by numbing which is all the over the counter things do anyway. Try with a good burito or a cheese coney and even that will be forgotten quickly.

[Lew]

... Several of the older CCM tuba & trumpet players who also played with the marching band took me out to Skyline Chili and had me pour a thick layer of McIlhenny's Tobasco across a cheese coney and eat it with the sauce applied to the canker. it HURT but then immediately went numb. ...

Ahhh, Skyline Chili!! I haven't been to Cincinnati in a long time, but still get a hankering for a five way every now and then.

[Matt G]

I have told students what I have found to be the best fix for canker sores:

Peroxyl.

It is a mouthwash available over the counter. It has a good bit of hydrogen peroxide in it and something else (??). This has really helped me speed up my recover time from these problems.

Also, make sure you are eating a good diet and possibly taking a mutlivitamin. Most foods anymore don't have vitamin counts like they used to and a suppliment is sometimes required. Plenty of water will also help to keep these sores at bay.

[Chuck(G)]

I get canker sores from time to time--I've always had them for as long as I can remember. And they're the genuine article--they can crop up anywhere (even in the back of the throat or the underside of the tongue) on the gums. Severe cases have multiple large eruptions.

Over the decades, I've noted that I'll get them when I'm not rested or have been ill. Watch what you eat and get sufficient rest. As a stopgap, I find that a coating of Zylactin (available OTC) keeps them from getting too irritated while playing. Good oral hygiene also seems to help. Taking preventative doses of l-lysine has no effect for me, but B-complex seems to speed healing a bit.

Back in the old days, I used to paint them with a solution of gentian violet (purple teeth, anyone?) or cauterize them with a silver nitrate stick (hurt like the dickens and didn't do any good).

[TubaJulio]

I used to sometimes get canker sores often. I had gone to the dentist and he noticed one and he asked me if I had been using toothpaste with cinnamon in it or chewing some sort of cinnamon flavored food and he said that if I was I should stop.
To make a long story short I havent gotten one since.

[winston]

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[Chuck(G)]

Canker sores are a virus according to my doctor and therefore cannot be prevented completely. They are, however, usually brought on by stress of some kind. .

The opinions are varied on canker sores--some suspect a virus, some think that an auto-immune situation is at work. It's not even clear that canker sores is a single disease.

But at least in my case, I'll agree with you on stress and getting rest. But sometimes, no matter what you do (or don't do) you can't avoid life and here they come...

[Chuck(G)]

...and tomatoes (you know they are considered poisonous/a part of the nightshade family/make you have hallucinagenic type nightmares). So, any type of pizza, spaghetti, or crushed tomato will count. Just a thought

We have something like that out here in Oregon--I believe they're called "mushrooms"...

[winston]

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[dkrahl]

I found that a common ingredient in toothpaste, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, can cause canker sores. Try a toothpaste that does not have this ingredient. It has helped me greatly.

[Chuck(G)]

If your cankers are recurrent, do some reading to get better informed. Google on: "Aphthous Stomatitis", which is medical speak for "canker sores".