CANKER SORES TREATMENT: A simple and inexpensive topical home treatment to heal and prevent canker sores flare-ups

SIMPLE AND INEXPENSIVE HOME TREATMENT FOR THE SPEEDY HEALING AND PREVENTION OF CANKER SORES

WARNING: Consult with a physician before using this home treatment. Particularly people with high blood pressure or in any other way sensitive to baking soda (sodium bicarbonate: NaHCO3) or any of its components, such as sodium, might suffer undesired side effects from this treatment and should consult with their physician before using this home treatment.

Some people attribute canker sores (Aphthous Stomatitis) to the presence of lauryl sulfate, a detergent agent in commercial toothpaste. There are toothpaste brands that don’t include lauryl sulfate as a component ingredient, but they didn't work for me.

What does work for me however is the following simple and inexpensive topical home treatment:

1. On the onset of a canker sore, apply a paste made of commercial (e.g. Arm & Hammer) baking soda (sodium bicarbonate: NaHCO3) and water on the sore. Leave the paste on your sore until it dissolves by itself. If you have an especially nasty inflamed canker the baking soda paste will burn at first, but after the second or third application, most likely, the burning will cease. Small sores usually disappear within hours. For fully blown out flares, repeat the application every three hours until the sore disappears.

2. To prevent any relapse use commercial baking soda toothpaste (e.g. baking soda Pepsodent, Arm & Hammer or Aim) at least once a day as part of your routine mouth hygiene, or/and rinse your mouth with a solution of one teaspoon of baking soda in a cup of water at least once a day.

I discovered this topical home treatment by mere accident. One day while on travel I ran out of mouthwash and decided to rinse my mouth with baking soda diluted in water. By mere coincidence, I was having a canker sore flare-up that day. To my pleasant surprise the sore started to heal quickly. I repeated the baking soda rinse several times through the day and the sore healed much faster.

I attributed the healing to the baking soda, so the next time I had a flare-up I decided to use baking soda paste rather than rinse; the sore healed fast, in a mater of hours, like by magic.

To prevent relapses I thereafter started rinsing my mouth with baking soda water solution once a day; it worked perfectly.

I then inferred that using baking soda toothpaste on a regular basis as part of my daily mouth hygiene would do the job as well. I was right; the baking soda toothpaste did the job.

I have since used commercial baking soda toothpaste (e.g. Pepsodent, Arm & Hammer or Aim) regularly to prevent relapses.

Now I use it only once a day, employing non-baking soda toothpaste at the other three times I clean my mouth daily, with the same excellent results.

To test the effect of baking soda on my canker sores, I purposely suspended the use of baking soda toothpaste in repeated occasions. A sore started about two days later in each instance, I then applied the baking soda paste and the sore died in the budding.

Since my childhood I suffered AT LEAST one Canker sore flare-up per month. I have NOT had any since using baking soda toothpaste on a regular basis for my mouth hygiene.

I have been completely free of canker sores for more than 18 years.

Rene Guerra
P.O. Box R
Sunnyvale, CA 94087-0060