Natural Canker Sore Remedies: Quick Relief & Healing

Folic Acid doesn't work for canker sores. Makes them sorer.

Take folic acid. Mouth sores go away very quickly! It's fantastic!

I had a canker sore in mouth right where my gums and cheek meet. I chewed one garlic clove in the morning and once at night and within three days it was non-existent.

Having been a long time sufferer of mouth ulcers in which they lasted for 3-5wks and often so bad, eating and talking were almost impossible I seem to have found "my" cure, and I hope it can help someone else. Simply chew and "let soak" with crystalline ginger 3-4 times a day. If you catch them early enough, they just seem to fade away. I haven't tried any other variations such as ginger tea because I like the eating the ginger.

I placed a slice of ginger root on my canker sore. It relieves pain temporarily. I suggest before you eat something leave it in for about a minute. The pain usually goes away for about a good 45 minutes. My canker sore was so large it was swollen, bleeding, and also had pus coming out of it. I could barely talk. The ginger root allowed me to eat a meal.

Use a very thin slice of fresh cut Ginger Root to heal painful mouth sores. Rub the Ginger Root on the sore. Discard the slice after use, or eat it. Works fast, and kills the pain instantly. I have had a few mouth sores in the last several years and this treatment has worked 100% of the time, for me, with just one application.

My partner (female, 57) has suffered with mouth cankers for as long as she can remember. These are/were incredibly painful. They looked like mini volcano's! They came 'round on a regular basis on gums, tongue and inner lips. We tried just about everything, but with no joy. Then I thought maybe she is gluten sensitive (I had heavily researched gluten sensitivity for my own [now cured skin condition[s], see elsewhere on Earthclinic), and other other 'odd' and seemingly incurable autoimmune-like issues of various friends. The result? Bam! No more mouth cankers. What a joy! To those who do not suffer this issue you just cannot believe the sheer relief that this has brought her. 50 years of doctors efforts had come to nothing. It has now been 2/3 months with no sign of mouth ulcers.

As an aside I would suggest to ANYONE that if you have some sort of seemingly incurable issue (candida, cankers, anaemia, IBS, ear pain, brain fog, rheumatoid arthritis etc., etc. , or indeed... Whatever) that you very, very strongly consider some form of gluten sensitivity. Sadly my partners father also suffers from canker issue (and stomach problems), but as he is 85 and bread is something of a holy social and ethnic issue with him he will just not accept the fact that gluten is his problem. Nevertheless we will keep trying to convince him!

For years I suffered from canker sores, joint pain, sudden weakness, sharp pains throughout my body, and acid reflux. When the stomach cramps set in, that was the red flag: I was gluten intolerant. For those of you suffering from chronic canker sores, it is a food allergy and one of the symptoms of gluten intolerance. As damage occurs to your intestines, your ability to absorb certain vitamins (like vitamin B) can cause your immune system to attack the inside of your mouth because it responds to certain substances that may be left behind after eating.

For me, the trigger was citric acid, but the primary cause was gluten. Now I don't get canker sores unless I eat something with gluten in it. I can even have drinks and foods with citric acid in it and not get them if I'm avoiding gluten. If you are only getting them infrequently then I would suspect that you are just low in vitamin B, but for those of you getting this painful mouth ulcer regularly, you might want to get tested for gluten intolerance. Just thought I'd put in my experiences and two-cents since I see so many myths circulating around about canker sores since there is no definite answer on what causes them.

I am age 83. I suffered from canker sores continuously my whole life until 2 years ago when by accident I discovered that I had celiac disease, that is gluten intolerance. Since going on a gluten-free diet I have not had even one canker sore. NADA! Also the acid reflux that I had all my adult life has also almost completely gone away.

I haven't seen this method but it works like a charm. GOLDENSEAL. In liquid format. It doesn't sting like Alum, and has other healing properties as well. Goldenseal is a natural antibiotic.

First I'm going to tell you the method, then I'll tell you from my experience why cankers appear in the first place and what you can do as a preventative.

Get good strong, high quality liquid Goldenseal from a health food store --- do not get the cheap variety from a drugstore. Put a thimble full in a shot glass and fill the shot glass to about 3/4 with nice hot/warm water. Dump all of it into your mouth. Sit there with the mixture in your mouth for about 20 minutes - maybe go watch some TV. But be active while you are watching. Swish it around on your canker(s), push it, pull it, blow out your cheek. Make the Goldenseal get INTO your canker. When done, spit it out but don't rinse. Leave the residue in your mouth and go about your day. You should notice pretty immediate relief as your canker starts to go down and shrink.

Do this again after every meal and as needed. This is because food and drink of any kind will tend to stimulate your canker. You need to calm your mouth down again with the Goldenseal mixture. Do it right before you go to bed as well so the mixture residue can be in your mouth, protecting, while you sleep.

Now, here are a few other things about cankers and the reasons you get them (from my research and what I have been able to understand).

It's an acidic imbalance in the body, expressing itself via cankers. Too much acid. Here's what to do when you feel a canker coming on, or when you have them already....

Check your toothpaste. It often causes cankers and imbalances. Go down to the drugstore and get Rembrandt's tooth paste for cankers. Always keep it in the house and switch to it immediately when you feel a canker coming on. It's not that it does anything FOR the canker, it's just that they've removed the crap that causes cankers.

Immediately modify your diet also. Sorry, but you want BLAND food that will stop stimulating your canker. Here's what you MUST stay away from: anything with citrus, coffee, chocolate, spicy food, salts and peppers, milk and dairy (terrible for cankers) --- and sugar! If you have this stuff you'll instantly be able to feel it eat into your canker and start causing pain. Stay away from it until the canker is gone. Oh, and alcohol - especially WINE. Staying away from these things will help immensely and quickly.

It helps to take a pain reliever to get rid of the pain and give yourself a break for a bit.

And here's the other thing. I find I get cankers when my body is run down and I've been forgetting to take my vitamins. My body slowly goes into imbalance and cankers rise to the occasion. Be rigorous about taking vitamins! Especially a B complex which will help with stress (stress also contributes to cankers). Search online for a good liquid vitamin. I've found one easy to take, fast and effective for absorption by the body.

The last thing is that if you want extra help in addition to the Goldenseal use the Aspirin method mentioned above. It works. I think it helps to get rid of the astringent imbalance in the mouth. Grind some real aspirin (doesn't have to be baby aspirin) with a spoon on the counter. Lick the tip of your finger and dip it in the powder. Lay it on the canker and cover the canker with the powder. Keep in mouth for about 1/2 hour or so. It really works.

Enjoy the relief of this program folks.

I wanted to pass along some information for those that suffer from frequent canker sores. My granddaughter get's canker sores all of the time. It seems she gets a couple and just about gets those healed and there's another outbreak in her mouth. At times they are so bad that she can't talk and has trouble eating/chewing. I've researched this for years as well as talk to her dentist, her pediatrician and tried different rememdies. The first thing I did was take her off regular toothpaste and have her start using a natural toothpaste without SLS and that seemed to help only slightly. I've continued researching and having her try different rememdies. I think we've finally found the "magic bullet". I'd read that Goldenseal Root was great for healing canker sores. Buy the tincture (liquid) and apply it directly to the sore with a Q-tip. She noticed immediate relief with the pain and the sore healed very quickly. She also had a new one that hadn't fully developed, but she knew that in the next day or two it would be a full blown canker sore, so she started applying Goldenseal Root to that as well and by the very next day it was completely gone!

When I went to the local health food store to buy the Goldenseal Root, the clerk told me that alot of times mouth sores are caused because there's a problem in the intestines and she advised me to get a good probiotic and have my granddaughter take it daily. She started a daily regimine of a good probiotic first thing in the morning about 30 minutes before breakfast, then dabbing the sores a minimum of 3 times a day. Her outbreaks have really slowed down and when she feels one forming she starts this regimine right away and it either stops it in it's tracks or heals them very, very quickly. Just wanted to pass this along to everyone who suffers the same fate as my granddaughter. I know how much she suffered and how badly these things effected her life so I hope that this information will help others as well.

I read a LOT of the suggestions to get rid of canker sores as I get them every once in a while and they are awful. I agree that bacterial cultures and oil pulling can keep the mouth in a healthier state on a daily basis...but a remedy I didn't see anywhere is goldenseal. It can be found at any health food store and sometimes is combined with echinacea. Now this is a natural remedy that should be used sparingly as it could one day be unavailable because of overharvesting... It can be taken in pill form or tincture to boost the immune system in times when it is low but in the case of cankers, using the pill form and opening one of the capsules up and carefully putting the powder on the canker works amazingly to kill the infection. I tried using the tincture and rinsing with it and it just turned my mouth and teeth bright yellow....not cool! so get the pill form for sure... Hope this helps others in pain from those nasty canker sores!

A couple of days ago I had some dental work done. I recieved topical anesthesia, a couple pain killing shots, and laughing gas. The shots made my mouth very swollen, and the topical anethesia and the laughing gas made me unable to feel the entire left side of my mouth. While I was out of it, I chewed up that whole side, leaving large, raged canker sores.

After a couple days of pain which required me to take leftover Valiums from previous dental work, I tried drinking green tea, iced. It's cooling, soothing, and offers a great deal of relief.

For ALL of my adult life, I've been plagued by horrible outbreaks of canker sores, typically 2-3 very large sores at any given time. Six months ago I began drinking green tea daily as a substitute for soda. To my amazement, my canker sores disappeared and did not return. Green tea was the only dietary change I made (I still drink soda, just not as much). In addition, occasionally I will not have green tea for about a week, and soon enough the canker sores return.

I am not the type of person who really believes in folk or herbal remedies, but after discovering accidentally that green tea elminated my chronic canker sores, I am a believer in at least the health properties of green tea. I really cannot express what an improvement in quality of life this is for me and likely other chronic canker sore sufferers, so spread the word!

I noticed my relatively new habit of drinking green tea is drastically affecting the frequency at which canker sores appear in my mouth. They now seem to form only in the upper part of my mouth. Swishing tea on the sore greatly reduces the time it takes (24-36 hours) for it to heal. It's amazing to find this out after years of dealing with them.