your breakfast burrito but this thing

inside your lip hurts every time you

take a bite then you go for a swig of

orange juice and it stings so much that

your eyes start to water that's life

with a canker sore technically called an

afta sulser once you have one you're

pretty much stuck with it for the next

week or so but there are some things you

can do to try to prevent canker sores in

the first place and there are ways to

make them hurt less and maybe even heal

faster to be clear we're not talking

about cold sores here the bumps you

might get on your lips outside your

mouth those are caused by a viral

infection instead the AFT this ulcers

are basically little abrasions inside

your mouth they're often caused by

something that irritates a spot like

braces or dentures rubbing against your

cheek or acidic or spicy foods but there

are other factors involved too studies

have shown that when people are

especially stressed they tend to get

more canker sores possibly because the

hormones your body releases when you're

stressed can trigger inflammation and

nutritional deficiencies like if you're

not getting enough iron or vitamin b12

can thin the cell layers lining your

mouth leading to more canker sores and

then there are the unlucky folks who

have recurrent aphthous stomatitis or

ras which basically means that they have

extra painful canker sores that keep

reappearing researchers aren't totally

sure why people get ras but it might

have to do with genetics or higher

stress levels so to try to prevent

canker sores you can avoid spicy foods

and be careful with anything sharp or

poke in your mouth like braces but

there's no guarantee that you won't get

one anyway the good news is there are

things dentists recommend trying to make

a canker sore less painful while it

heals you can buy treatments with a

chemical called benzocaine which

interacts with your nerve endings to

numbness or so it doesn't hurt when you

chew you can also rinse your mouth with

some diluted hydrogen peroxide which

will burn like the Sun but will kill off

bacteria that might infect the canker

sore and make it stick around longer and

prescription medications with a steroid

called fluid sinan ID can make the

canker sore heal faster and interact

with your immune system to bring down

swelling for tougher cases like Ras

doctors can prescribe stronger meds like

other steroids or antibiotics they come

with stronger side effects but have been

shown to reduce the number of canker

sores people get and make the ones they

do get less painful the next time you

get one of these annoying painful things

just remember there is hope thanks for

asking and thanks especially to all of

our patrons on patreon who keep these

answers coming if you'd like to submit

questions to be answered just go to

patreon.com/scishow and don't forget to

go to youtube.com/scishow and subscribe