mouth ulcer.. reassurance?

[ellie_C_mason1990]

i have a mouth ulcer on my gum underneath my teeth... SO painful, and quite shallow. I have swelling under my jaw as well. Of course I have automatically assumed I have mouth cancer and have been crying a lot. I never have ulcers in this area... and I interpret the swelling as the cancer having already spread to the lymph nodes.

I know you have to wait 10 days before seeing a GP but i cant wait, it takes over all of my thoughts every day. It makes it worse that I am an ex trivial smoker and have heavy drank since I was 15 (drinking every weekend and a bit in the week). I'm 19.

Does anyone have any reassuring advice? Or any mouth cancer statistics? or any mouth ulcer stories. i would appreciate anything...

[Lissy43]

You will be ok. Look at my post yesterday, im getting them too xxx

[blueangel]

Hi Ellie

I don't have any stats to hand, but I'm pretty sure that mouth cancer is EXTREMELY rare in people your age; if I remember rightly it mostly affects people over 60 who have either smoked a lot or drink a lot of alcohol.

Also, I think occurrences of mouth cancer usually aren't painful, and as I'm sure you'll know from your current mouth ulcer, they are very painful indeed!

I think they can often be linked to hormonal changes in your body; I used to get them around the time of my period, but I seemed to grow out of them years ago and don't get them very often at all now. I used to get some whoppers, but I'm happy to report I'm still here years later!

[ellie_C_mason1990]

Thanks guys!
I have been really anxious recently so my Mum blamed the ulcer on that.. but then i am more anxious now so the ulcer might not go away..more stress. !

I hate the constant flipping over off my thoughts, one minute I think 'oh it is just an ulcer' then the next I am imagining dying.

I guess it is painful and swollen because it is fighting off an infection?