How to Deal With Oral Thrush

Oral thrush is mainly associated with the accumulation of fungus Candida albicans on the lining of the mouth. This condition can result in creamy white lesions on tongue and inner cheeks. It could be pretty painful to scrap those lesions and it may also result in bleeding. This thrush can spread to your gums, roof of your mouth, tonsils, or back of your throat.

Although this problem is usually specifically associated with babies, it can happen to anyone. People who wear dentures, use inhaled corticosteroids, and/or have weakened immune system get this problem. If you are healthy and got oral thrush problem, you don’t need to worry about it much. However, the symptoms of this condition may be more severe if you have weaker immune system.

The symptoms of oral thrush

Symptoms of oral thrush may vary among different age groups. For instance, children and adults suffer from same kind of symptoms of oral thrush. Some of those symptoms include creamy white lesions on the tongue and lining of the mouth, pain, lesions appearing like cottage cheese, susceptible to bleeding when rubbed or scrapped, cottony feeling in the mouth, and loss of taste.

Oral thrush in infants can be identified with the help of nursing changes. Since mothers have to breastfeed their babies, the effects of oral thrush can move back and forth between mother's breasts and baby's mouth. The mothers whose breasts get infected with oral thrush may suffer from increased redness and sensitivity in nipples, shiny or flaky skin in the round and darker area around nipples, painful nursing, and pain within deep inside the breasts.

When to see the doctor?

The development of painful white lesions in your mouth or that of your kid should be the very signal that there is a need for medical or dental visit. The reason is that this problem is not related just to the health of oral cavity. It can represent severer conditions such as diabetes.

Causes of oral thrush

Oral thrush and candida infections can occur due to weakness of immune system, use of certain drugs and antibiotics, and/or other infections. Normally, our bodies are consistently at fight against infections and attack of certain harmful bacteria, viruses and fungi. When the balance is disturbed, it can lead to bad microbes dominating good ones. This failure of protective mechanisms can lead to the development of candida or oral thrush. Oral thrush infection can result due to the diseases such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, diabetes, and vaginal yeast infections.

Biannual dental visits can help you know about the existence of this problem in the oral cavity of you or your kid. However, you should not wait for this routine checkup if you see any symptoms showing up in your mouth.