Health Recurrent mouth ulcers or aphthous stomatitis Disease

Recurrent mouth ulcers or Aphthous stomatitis : The disease causes painful ,round ulcers to develop on the linings of the cheecks ,lips ,the tongue or the base of the gums ,the tendency to develop these ulcers is inherited ,ulcers can be associated with other diseases particularly connective tissue diseases such as lupus or Behcet,s syndrome which cause symptoms on the eyes and genitals as well as the mouth the ulcers can be single or multiple and they are recurrent ,multiple ulcers are scattered along the lining of the mouth ,not clustered , the cause of recurrent ulcers is not known but most theories involve immune abnormality ,certain blood diseases ,vitamin and mineral deficiencies ,allergies ,trauma and crohn,s disease cause similar ulcers ..
Recurrent aphthous stomatitis are classified into 3 categories :
(1)Minor ulcers : less than 1 cm and do not leave scar , usually heal within 2 weeks (2) Major ulcers : 1/2 inch or more in diameter take longer time than minor ulcers to heal and may leave scar . (3) Herptiform ulcers ;
are clusters of dozen of small ulcers (this form is rare ).
people tend to have 2-6 ulcers per episode and have several episodes each year . If the ulcers become more frequent or severe ,or accompanied by other symptoms such as rashes ,joint pain ,fever or diarrhea or are larger than about 1/2 inch in diameter ( blood diseases ,drug reactions ,connective tissue disorders and skin disorders should be considered..
Treatment : Correction of anaemia ,iron ,folate or B12 deficiency the ulcers show improvement when these deficiencies are treated ..
Treatment focuses on reliving symptoms ,rinsing with warm water solution and eating bland foods can minimize discomfort ,anesthetic medications or over the counter agents that are placed directly on the sores to coat them also may help . People with more severe disease may need steroid medications placed on the lesion these may shorten the healing time of the ulcers and preventing them from becoming larger