What is oral thrush?
Oral thrush is basically a yeast infection. It can happen in the mouth. Sometimes it presents as red, sometimes as little white plaques that rub off. Patients with dentures are more prone to it. Sometimes infants are more prone to it. Patients with inhalers are more prone to it. Treatment for it is just to take some suckers or lozenges that have an antifungal in them. It's just a fungal infection in the mouth.
What other kinds of mouth sores can happen?
A lot of weird stuff happens in the mouth. Some of it's viral, some of it's bacterial, some of it's autoimmune, and some of it's just cuts and scrapes and ulcers and sores. There's aphthous ulcers. It's a steroid condition. It usually is either viral, bacterial, steroid, or trauma.
Why shouldn't you use Dr. Google to diagnose mouth lesions?
Doctors are horrible at deciding what's what and what it is. A lot of these things look the same. This is not a time to look on Dr. Google because they're going to give you a list of things, and the bottom is going to be cancer. Just give us a call at the office. It usually takes me less than five minutes to look at it, see what it is and what's going on, and get you either an antiviral, an antibacterial, a steroid to help an inflammatory condition, or let you know it's trauma and give you some topicals to help accelerate the healing.
The problem with these conditions is if it's bacterial or viral and you get a steroid, it's going to make it worse. If you misdiagnose it, it's going to get worse. And they're all mixed red and white lesions. To the untrained eye, they all look the same. And to a lot of physicians, they look the same. Time and time again, other than herpes labialis, like oral herpes, cold sores, I have never seen a physician diagnose an intraoral condition properly. There are antivirals, there are antifungals, there are antibacterials, there are steroid medications, but if you give a steroid to something that you should give an antifungal, an antiviral, or an antibacterial to, it's going to make it way worse.
When should you call the office about a mouth lesion?
If you have something going on in the mouth—a lesion, bump, sore, swelling, anything that is weird, doesn't taste good, hurts, burns, itches, anything like that—please give us a call at the office at (703) 451-4500.I'll get it diagnosed quickly. On the off chance that it is oral cancer, I'll get you a biopsy, and we'll make sure we get the right diagnosis for you and get it treated quickly.
How serious is oral cancer?
I have had two cases in my career of diagnosed oral cancer, and I just feel like I was doing my job, and every time I see the patient they say, thank you for saving my life. It is a very rare thing, but it is important to catch it early. If there's anything going on in the mouth, especially if it doesn't resolve within a couple weeks on its own, give us a call. The sooner I see it, the sooner I can help you heal and get healthy.
You’re never alone in caring for your dental health. At Dulac Dental of Springfield, our team is here to support and meet you where you are in your dental journey. Call (703) 451-4500 or email [email protected] to connect with us today.