Dr ATOT: Stronger (OTC) oral anesthetic than 20% benzocaine?

[Jeff7]

Dr ATOT,
I've gotten a recent flare-up of mouth ulcers, and it's enough that I've actually lost a few pounds over the past few days because eating is rather painful.
I've had these things since elementary school. Any minor injury on the inside of my mouth will develop into an open sore within a day, and they take at least 2 weeks to heal to the point where they don't hurt anymore. The response from doctors/dentists/orthodontists/oral surgeons over the years has ranged from "Mouth ulcers? Huh, I've never seen anything like that," to "I don't know what causes them, or what can be done to prevent or cure them." Those who have heard of them will recommend the same things: Oral anesthetic until they heal, which is usually a 20% benzocaine gel like Orajel, or else the traditional remedies that don't really do much of anything. The traditional remedies are things like salt water rinse, peroxide rinse, vinegar, alcohol-based listerine, pickle juice. For one thing, they don't seem to do anything useful. The other effect that all of them seem to have is making the sores burn like hell. (Imagine rubbing 80-grit sandpaper on your arm until you bleed, then dousing it with any of these substances. It's like a prescription booklet written by a masochist.)

Usually I'll get just one of these things at a time, so I can at least try to chew food primarily on the side of my mouth that's not affected. But now I've got 7 of these things right now, so that's not an option, and the 20% benzocaine gel just isn't cutting it. I've also tried throat spray with 1.4% phenol, but it's also kind of weak.
Are there any other OTC oral anesthetics out there?

I don't really know what my options are for this kind of thing, but having my mouth constantly burning is starting to get to me. It seems that it even bothers me in my sleep - I'm noticing that I'm clenching my jaw shut at night, and drawing a vacuum on the inside of my mouth in order to prevent skin surfaces from rubbing against each other. The problem with this is, it ends up causing more lesions on the sides of my tongue where it gets pressed into the sides of my teeth - and of course these lesions then start to hurt as well.

Can I just find a random doctor in town, get a quick appointment, say "Gimme pain killers," and walk out with a prescription for something? I hate needles, much less when they're getting jammed into my mouth, but I'm at the point where I'd welcome multiple novocaine injections.


Cliffs:
- Had mouth ulcers since childhood.
- Doctors haven't been of much help.
- Got lots of them now, they hurt like hell.
- Can't sleep/disruptions to sleep due to pain.
- 20% benzocaine isn't strong enough for this scenario.
- Ponies.
- Options?

 

[BoomerD]

Cocaine.

 

[Buttzilla]

silver nitrate is what we normally use in our office. don't know if you can get that otc though.

 

[BoomerD]

I'm not sure I want to know why someone named "Buttzilla" works in a dental office...

 

[yhelothar]

lidocaine... or cocaine...
Cocaine is actually schedule III, that's one schedule lower than adderall.
It's medical purpose? Oral anesthetic.

 

[tcsenter]

Silver nitrate = burns like hell.

 

[moshquerade]

canker sores.

and try using a toothpaste that doesn't contain SLS (sodium lauryl sulfate). i believe Toms of Maine is one brand that doesn't.

I had on patient who kept getting canker sores. He had been getting them like every few months for years! I told him to stop brushing with any toothpaste that contained SLS, and luckily that worked. The canker sores stopped.

 

[Texashiker]

Cliffs:
- Had mouth ulcers since childhood.
- Doctors haven't been of much help.

Do you drink a lot of juice? Orange juice, grape juice,,,, anything like that?

I used to get mouth sores all the time. Come to find out, its from drinking too much juice.

When I drink juice, all I can drink is maybe 2 or 3 ounces. If I drink a class of orange juice, a few days later I have a mouth sore.

The sad thing is I love juice. If I could, I would drink juice all the time. At one time I was drinking juice everyday, and I had mouth sores all the time. When I stopped drinking juice, sores went away.

 

[Jeff7]

canker sores.

and try using a toothpaste that doesn't contain SLS (sodium lauryl sulfate). i believe Toms of Maine is one brand that doesn't.

I had on patient who kept getting canker sores. He had been getting them like every few months for years! I told him to stop brushing with any toothpaste that contained SLS, and luckily that worked. The canker sores stopped.

That was also tried years ago, among the various other things attempted - I tried that brand, and I believe one other. No effect. But thank you.
I've also tried using Biotene mouthwash across several months. Also no effect.

Do you drink a lot of juice? Orange juice, grape juice,,,, anything like that?

I used to get mouth sores all the time. Come to find out, its from drinking too much juice.

When I drink juice, all I can drink is maybe 2 or 3 ounces. If I drink a class of orange juice, a few days later I have a mouth sore.

The sad thing is I love juice. If I could, I would drink juice all the time. At one time I was drinking juice everyday, and I had mouth sores all the time. When I stopped drinking juice, sores went away.

Sometimes.

I was on an orange juice kick for about 2 months since I heard about Simply Orange in a thread here. I was actually completely clear of these ulcers up until last week. For the longest time before then though, I didn't drink much fruit juice at all, and it didn't seem to have any effect.

This flare-up is likely coincidence. They usually come one at a time, but sometimes their occurrence is going to overlap.

 

[brainhulk]

when i was a kid, my dentist cauterized it. it hurt like hell, but very effective.

you have an autoimmune disease like steven johnson's or lupus. or you might have aids