There is no definite cause of mouth ulcers.

Certain factors and triggers causing mouth ulcers include:
✓ Minor mouth injury from dental work, hard brushing, sports injury, or accidental bite.
✓ Toothpastes and mouth rinses that contain sodium lauryl sulfate.
✓ Food sensitivities to acidic foods like strawberries, citrus, and pineapples, and other trigger foods like chocolate and coffee.
✓ Lack of essential vitamins, especially B-12, zinc, folate, and iron.
✓ Dental braces.
✓ Hormonal changes during menstruation.
✓ Emotional stress or lack of sleep.
✓ Bacterial, viral, or fungal infection.

See your dentist if :
✓ Your mouth ulcer has lasted three weeks.
✓ You keep getting mouth ulcers.
✓ Your mouth ulcer becomes more painful or red – this could be a sign of a bacterial infection, which may need treatment with antibiotics.

Most mouth ulcers don’t need treatment.
However, if you get mouth ulcers occur often or they’re extremely painful, a number of treatments can decrease pain and healing time.

These include:
✓ Using a rinse of salt water.
✓ Using over-the-counter topical anesthetic.
✓ Using mouth rinse that contains a steroid to reduce pain and swelling.
✓ Avoiding hard,spicy,salty,acidic or hot food and drink until the ulcer heals.
✓ Taking nutritional supplements like folic acid, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, and zinc.