Almost everyone experiences a canker sore in their lifetime. These annoying mouth ulcers make talking and eating painful and difficult, but they’re often viewed as being unavoidable and incurable: you simply have to wait for them to heal on their own.
But what if you wanted to speed up the healing process?
There are actually many home remedies to help heal your canker sore quickly. But first, you have to understand what triggered them in the first place.
What Are Canker Sores?
Unlike cold sores, canker sores don’t occur on the surface of your lips and they aren’t contagious.
Most canker sores are round or oval with a white or yellow center and a red border. They form inside your mouth — on or under your tongue, inside your cheeks or lips, at the base of your gums, or on your soft palate. (source)
There are two types of canker sores (1):
- Simple canker sores that appear 3-4 times a year and last up to a week. They typically occur childhood and adolescence.
- Complex canker sores which are reoccurring and somewhat unpredictable.