Cure Canker Sores with Inexpensive Home Remedies

Burning tounge-Mouth issues: When you have burning tongue or canker sores on tongue or in mouth. Do not drink any orange juice, ketchup, sauce etc. The best cure I have found is to rinse your mouth will Karo syrup. It seems to neutralize the acid. Also 2% hydrogen peroxide.

A few weeks ago my daugther bit her cheek when chewing. You know how that is...you end up biting the same spot over and over and it is uncomfortable. I know when that used to happen to me, I always ended up with a canker sore. I realized the reason it kept happening is because the mild trauma of having been bitten causes some swelling, so it is easy to keep on biting the same spot. I had my daugther place a charcoal tablet against the spot until the charcoal dissolved. (This actually can take 10 minutes or so.) By the time the charcoal had dissolved, her problem had resolved.

Yesterday, I did the same thing! I bit my cheek and it was irritated. I could feel a little bubble. I put a charcoal tablet on it and let it dissolve. By the time it dissolved, I no longer felt irritation and the bubble was smaller. Within an hour or two, I realized the little bubble was completely gone.

Charcoal is anti-inflammatory, so I think that is why this worked. Charcoal tablets are also good for canker sores, the earlier caught, the better. I suspect this treatment would keep a canker sore from forming where the mouth has had trauma. Too bad I didn't know this long ago, but better late than never!

Have a great day!

~Mama to Many~

Aloe Vera is very helpful in the healing process, as is sodium lauryl sulfate elimination.

Remedy Side Effects for Canker Sores: I found Earth Clinic while googling for a canker sore remedy. I was relieved to find so many positive responses to these remedies. So I went and picked up several of the remedies hoping at least one would work as good as stated. I started with Alum. I dabbed a wet finger into the powder and applied it to the 4cm canker sore inside my bottom left gum. At first it stung like salt on an open wound. Then it subsided to the feeling of a butcher knife cutting into my gum. After a half an hour of this I rinsed my mouth out with water and spend 15min in front of the bathroom mirror applying H202 with a q-tip. The pain of applying the H202 eventually subsided to a pounding throb. My mouth was watering so bad I had to stuff kleenex inside my gums to dam the flood. The H202 eventually stopped sizzling so I rinsed and tolerated the dull throbbing ache for 1/2 hr. Finally I applied crushed aspirin to the sore. the aspirin burned but not as much as the alum. My mouth was now feeling like I'd been punched in the face.... twice. My bottom lip was puffy and my gums were numb everywhere except for the sore. I tolerated that for another 15min and finally rinsed the aspirin out with a cold budweiser. It's now been 2hrs later and I'm on my 7th beer and the pain has almost completedly subsided in the past 10min. So far the side affects of the treatment has been tolerable. Hopefully my head won't hurt as bad as my mouth in the morning....

I don't see how Apple Cider would help canker sores, because it is acidic. What I do is I watch how much citric acid I take in. Soda is terrible! It has a very high concentration of citric acid! Milk Chocolate contains it, from what I hear, though they are not required to list it in the ingredients. I have noticed that I get them after eating chocolate, but I have to eat quite a bit of chocolate to get a sore. I have dealt with the pain of canker sores since I was a kid, often times having one right after another. I used to carry around medicines such as Kanka, only to find the stuff made them worse or made them last longer. Come to find out, I was putting citric acid directly on the sore, as many of these medications contain it! So I started with eliminating soda (I was hooked on diet pepsi at work). Bingo! I drastically reduced the number of canker sores I was getting. Next, I started watching what I was eating. I noticed that anything with citric acid in it would give me the beginnings of a canker sore within an HOUR after eating or drinking it. Then I applied some common sense to the situation, and remembered that an old cure for stomach indigestion and acid reflux was baking soda. So, whenever I eat something or drink something with citric acid in it, I immediately rinse my mouth with a mixture of baking soda and water (look on the box or on the arm and hammer website for their recommendation for using it as a mouth wash). I think the answer to canker sores is prevention, not curing it once it's in your mouth. Once it's there, you basically have to wait it out. I still get them, but only once in awhile now instead of all the time...However, when I do get one, it's my own fault now!

On 05/24/2011: Mj from Ny wrote: "steve--i know your post was over a year ago, but if you're reading this--try going gluten-free. gluten can produce arthritis pain (severe) and canker sores and many many other horrible symptoms."

I read Steve's post about the canker sores and totally thought about Gluten. I learned I was Gluten Intolerant in Oct 2009. I had read on Celiac dot com that canker sores will go away after going gluten free and I was like " yeah right" because I have had them ALL MY LIFE. If I eat anything that nicks my cheek or gum, a huge painful canker sore would appear and take 2 weeks or more to go away. I was buying Kanka all the time to help ease the pain. If I bit my cheek, same thing would happen.

After going Gluten Free I have not had a single canker sore, since 2009. I've nicked my cheek, bit my cheek, all by accident and a little cut would be there from it and be gone over night... Never ever turns into a canker sore. I am proof and I've told my entire family and friends. Amazing!

I am currently trying ACV remedy for my canker sore. I only have one small canker sore right now. However, over a year ago I had a bad outbreak with one canker sore the size of a dime was literally eating through my cheek. I tried everything and it took over a months to heal. My glands were swollen and I considered seeing a physician.

One thing I have noticed however, is that my outbreaks usually accurr after eating too many hot dogs(2 a day or more for a 2-4 day period). This outbreak is no different, I ate a few hot dogs a few days in a row and here comes a canker sore. However, When I had my horrible outbreak over a year ago, I was living in North Carolina and didn't have much food to eat. My diet consisted of 5 hot dogs a day and I had my worse outbreak then. Perhaps there is something contained in hot dogs that could cause this. I'm going to research hot dogs and check it out. I've also noticed that eating brocoli can sometimes cure a canker sore in just days.

Avoiding milk and milk products cured my canker sores. Both my mother and I suffered from sores in our mouths and we had tried many different remedies hoping to prevent them. Mom discovered that if she reduced her milk intake, she got fewer sores. Now, we both drink only soy milk and have been canker-free for years. Soy ice creams are getting better and better, too. I occasionally have some regular cheese and this doesn't seem to cause any problems. Cheese made from soy is still pretty awful.

I have had episodes of canker sore since I was a child. After suffering for about 35 years I figured out that my canker sores were triggered by certain tree nuts. I am not otherwise allergic to tree nuts. If I eat walnuts or hazelnuts, or products containing them or their oil, canker sores will develop in 24-48 hours. I also think that seasonal pollen allergies may trigger them, and found that a prescription antihistamine (I know, not a folk remedy) completely prevents them in pollen season. As for "cures" I have never found one, but am intrigued by the alum testimonials and will try that.

Avoid Sodium Laurel Sulphate in foaming toothpaste, cleansers etc. I am a 58 year old female and have suffered on and off with canker sores (aka mouth ulcers) since my teens, although sometimes going for long periods with none. However I have recently had two cankers on the gums of my lower front teeth which just will not go away. Normally a canker sore would last about a week, but I have had these for approximately six weeks. I have been doing extensive research and believe I have discovered the cause : sodium laurel sulphate (SLS). I was using hydrogen peroxide on the sores for healing and also using a purchased baking soda toothpaste,, but did not realise the toothpaste contained SLS. I have also been using a foaming cleanser with SLS on my face which may or may not contribute to the issue. I believe I have developed a sensitivity to SLS and will now need to avoid it. Just thought that might help someone.

I had suffered for more than 20 years with moth sores or canker sores. I talked to so many doctors. Some of them talked to me about drinking more water or taking some vitamins. I tried everything. Nothing worked until one day I read somewhere about SLS (sodium laureth sulphate) which is a chemical that makes the toothpaste more foamy. I switched to sls free toothpaste, and guess what? I have never got them again.

I have had canker sores for a while and had tried a lot of different things to help them. My daughter started to get them at a young age too. We looked around and found that SLS can cause canker sores and we found that it is in a lot of toothpastes. We started using Baking soda for toothpaste and we have not had any more canker sores for over 6 months except for my daughter 1 more time. She missed the toothpaste flavor and she used some of a gel mint flavor toothpast that had SLS in it and the next day she got a canker sore. She went back to the baking soda and it was gone in 2 days and didn't come back. Before she was getting 1 -2 every week now none in 6 months. We just get a small bowl and put some baking soda in it and wet the toothbrush in water and dip it in the paste 1 time and then brush. I learned about it from my grandpa many years ago but never used it. He past away at 94 years old and had almost all of his teeth.

I used to get canker sores, but then I started taking vitamins, particularly a multi-B, plus C and I've never had them since. My doctor recommended the multi-B, plus C supplement. The B also has a nice side effect of improving my complexion overall. For a quick cure, however, I used to put salt on them - it would burn like heck, but then the sore would go away the next day. I also think a crushed vitamin C tablet would be good.

Since childhood I have suffered from mouth ulcers. Usually rinsing with H2O2 works by rinsing several times a day and before going to bed. The next day the ulcer is nearly gone or completely gone. But not this time! Sometimes when my seasonal allergies kick in I get a patch of ulcers. This spring has been the worst ever. Ulcers popped up on the left side of my mouth on the cheeks, gums and under the tongue. So painful and the H2O2 was not working at all. So I came back to this site where I have learned so much over the years -- thanks to all the contributors! Decided to attack the ulcers by taking Echinacea, Lysine 2000-3000 mgs per day on an empty stomach and applying baking soda to all the areas. The first day I got immediate relief from the pain and inflammation on the left side. Kept applying baking soda all day. Slept better that night. Next day the left side was on the way to being healed BUT new ulcers emerged under the tongue and along the gums on the bottom row of teeth as if they were marching to the uninfected right side of my mouth. Yikes! Continued the above protocol plus brushed my teeth with baking soda and continued to place a half teaspoon under the tongue and between my bottom lip and lower gum. Good news. The new ulcers begin to recede with each application of baking soda. Thanks Earth Clinic -- God bless you all!

Thanks for those sharing about the baking soda remedy, I have been bothered with several canker sore in my mouth and cheeks in the last few days and they were very painful and have lost my appetite in eating. After trying a few solutions, they didn't really work for me and out of desperation, I applied some baking soda paste over the sores last night, while they haven't gone away, it did reduce the level of pain and hopefully they wil go away soon. Big thanks for sharing!