Mouth ulcer

[Upbeat3]

Hello all. I am new to this forum but have been lurking for a while now. I've suffered with health anxiety for quite a few years now and did attend a cbt therapy group in January - however I just seem to be getting more anxious all the time. My current problem is a mouth ulcer that has been with me for 11 days and doesn't seem to want to go! I think it was caused by brushing too vigorously on the first place and in the first week I managed to catch it quite a few times with my toothbrush. I have also prodded it a little to get the head off and my pharmacist tells me I've aggravated it. She also concerned that as I am so stressed about that the worry itself is stopping it healing. I went to the docs this morning for another issue but showed it to him and he didn't seem concerned but said to come back if it didn't heal. This would be taken in my stride if I wasn't plagued with this awful ha! I am a big googler (I know!) and all sites seem to indicate a non healing mouth ulcer could be serious. Any advice from fellow sufferers would be really appreciated
Upbeat ( but not at the moment!) xx
Ps- I'm 51 and a non smoker very very occasional drinker

[axolotl]

First of all please, please, please stop Googling (I know you already know that). You've seen a doctor, do you think you know better than them on medical matters? No. Listen to what they say. We're not equipped or qualified to understand medical stuff we read on the internet, and if we dig hard enough we can find information to confirm anything.

If you're poking it and aggravating it, and you're stressed and generally run down, you don't need another explanation. Mouth ulcers are mundane and harmless, but can linger and be really painful and annoying, and are one of the first signs you're physically or mentally run down. You don't need any nasty things to explain them. I imagine all the doctor is concerned about in saying come back if it's still there is seeing if you're still aggravating it and checking it's healing OK, not anything sinister.

[Upbeat3]

Thanks for your quick reply Axolitl- really appreciated. Trouble is with ha it's always the worst scenario and it's mental torture. I am a bubbly upbeat person most of the time and very supportive to others with health issues but as soon as I get something I fixate and scare myself to death! Really hard to live like this xo

[Sefton]

I can relate to your worry. I prod and poke at anything I'm worried about which tends to aggravate and make it worse. I know it's easier said then done to leave it alone, but do try. The advice on most oral concern websites is to get medical advice after three weeks if a sore hasn't healed.

Please don't google. I always scare the bejesus out of myself when I do. Google is no friend to anyone who suffers with HA.

[unsure_about_this]

Hi

If you are still worried see the dentist. I am trying not to google at much these days but I also prod and poke at anything and think the worst 24/7 always usually the big c

[Upbeat3]

Sefton - you are so right! why do we do this to ourselves? Is ha a form of OCD? X

---------- Post added at 19:49 ---------- Previous post was at 19:45 ----------

I've seen the doctor this morning and my lovely local pharmacist is keeping an eye on it for me as well - she's more worried about my stress I think x

[axolotl]

she's more worried about my stress I think x

Which sounds about right. Hope you're back to your upbeat self soon. :)

[Sefton]

Sefton - you are so right! why do we do this to ourselves? Is ha a form of OCD? X

I'm waiting to start CBT because of my HA so I think there is a link. I certainly need to reroute my thought process and will try anything that might help.:yesyes:

[Upbeat3]

I am even considering hypnosis because I think my thought process is so ingrained I need to tackle it at a subconscious level. Anyone tried this? X

[Catalyst]

Hello! I had to respond to this thread, as I've recently had a very similar problem. I had a mouth ulcer that hadn't improved for about 18 days. I went to the dentist and she said it was starting to heal. That made me feel better, but it was probably another 2 weeks before I actually felt like it had completely gone.

I was constantly touching the sore area with my tongue and, in the end, I actually got an unrelated trapped nerve in my neck which distracted me for a few days - I think that made me stop focusing on the ulcer long enough to break the habit of me 'checking it'!

Point is, it did deventually go away but took quite a few weeks in total. They can definitely take longer than you'd think! :)

[Upbeat3]

Thank you for posting your story- it's really comforting to know that healing times can be longer than the norm. Of course all the poking around and the stress we put ourselves through doesn't help. Once we loose focus on the problem it starts to resolve. And we loose that focus to fret about another ailment! Oh the joys

[Catalyst]

Yep! I always find one symptom improves when another presents itself! I hope your ulcer does heal soon though. I know how annoying they can be.