Mouth Ulcers
Mouth ulcers (canker sores) are small, painful, round sores inside the mouth — white or yellow in the middle with a red border. Most heal on their own within one to two weeks. An ulcer that has not healed in three weeks needs a doctor or dentist.
- Most mouth ulcers clear up on their own within 1 to 2 weeks
- Most are smaller than 1 centimetre across — about the size of a pea
- They are most common in teenagers and people in their 20s
- An ulcer lasting more than 3 weeks should be checked by a doctor or dentist
Source: NHS; MedlinePlus; Cleveland Clinic
What is Mouth Ulcers?
The inside of your mouth is lined with a thin, moist skin that renews itself very quickly. A mouth ulcer is a small place where this lining has broken open. The raw spot has a pale white or yellow base and a red, sore edge, and it stings when salty, sour or spicy food touches it.
Common mouth ulcers are not cancer and are different from the cold sores caused by a virus on the lips. They often come back again and again, and they are more common when the body is short of vitamin B12, folic acid or iron.
What are the symptoms?
- A round or oval sore with a white or yellow centre and a red border
- Stinging pain, worse when eating or drinking
- A tingling or burning feeling a day before the sore appears
- Sores on the inner cheeks, lips, tongue or at the base of the gums
- Sores that keep coming back
What causes it, and who is more likely to get it?
Injury to the mouth
- Biting the cheek or lip, a sharp tooth, braces or loose dentures
- Hard brushing, or burns from hot food
Shortage in the body
Body and mind
- Stress, tiredness and anxiety
- Hormone changes, such as around periods
- A family tendency
Other causes
- Some foods and food allergies, and toothpaste with sodium lauryl sulphate
- Some medicines, and recently stopping smoking
- Illnesses of the gut or immune system, such as coeliac disease or Crohn's disease
How is it found?
A doctor or dentist usually knows a mouth ulcer just by looking. Tests are used when ulcers keep coming back, or when one does not heal.
Mouth examination
The size, shape and place of the sore, and whether it looks like an ordinary ulcer.
Blood tests
For ulcers that keep coming back: vitamin B12, folic acid, iron and a blood count.
Check for mouth cancer
An ulcer that lasts more than 3 weeks, or looks different from usual, is checked by a doctor or dentist.
A neurotherapist looks for the signs of low vitamin B12: dark skin over the knuckles, patchy darkening of the face, and feet that stay asleep after sitting cross-legged and standing up. Then, with you lying on your right side, the B12 point on the left hip is felt. Tenderness on the right hip points to the folic acid side instead.
How Neurotherapy sees Mouth Ulcers
In LMNT teaching, mouth ulcers that keep coming back often point to the stomach, not the mouth. They belong to the picture of vitamin B12 shortage — tiredness, dark knuckles, numb feet after sitting, anaemia and mouth ulcers — and Lt. Parkhoo, the B12 point on the left hip, is written for all of these. (4) Thrd is also given for mouth ulcers: it releases iodine, which helps them heal quickly.
How a stomach problem can show up in the mouth
- Stomachmust make intrinsic factor for B12 to be taken in
- Ileumthe last part of the small intestine absorbs it
- Liverstores a stock that lasts five to six years
- Fast-growing cellsmouth lining, gut lining and marrow need it most
- Shortageshows first as mouth ulcers, anaemia and weak digestion
Because the liver's store lasts years, Guruji's teaching reads a low B12 as a problem of absorption, not of eating: a person who eats well and still has signs of low B12 has a stomach that has not been taking it in. For intrinsic factor to be made properly, the blood circulation of the stomach must be proper — for which Gas Only is given.
It is not enough that one eats protein. The thing that matters is that it is digested.
Neurotherapy treatment for Mouth Ulcers, step by step
Examine first
The therapist checks Liv° and Mu°, looks at the knuckles and the face, does the sitting test, and asks about tiredness, numbness, food and — for women — the periods.
Feel both hips
Lying on each side in turn, both hips are felt. A tender left hip points to vitamin B12; a tender right hip to folic acid.
The Vitamin B12 formula
(3) Gal, (7) Liv, (8) Lt. Parkhoo — the gall bladder first, then the liver, then the B12 point on the left hip, lying on the right side.
Help the stomach take it in
Gas Only is given so that the stomach's blood circulation is proper and intrinsic factor can be made.
Help the ulcers heal
(4) Thrd releases iodine, which helps mouth ulcers heal quickly — given only when none of the Thrd bars applies.
Points and formulas used
Vitamin B₁₂ formula
(3) Gal (7) Liv (8) Lt. Parkhoo — supports the body's absorption of vitamin B₁₂.
Open →Lt. Parkhoo
The B₁₂ point on the left hip — for fatigue, dark knuckles, numb feet after sitting, anaemia and mouth ulcers.
Open →Never do this
- (4) Thrd is not given in asthma (the cough increases), in bamboo spine or bone spur, or to heart patients — in heart patients (2) Thrd is given instead. (4) Thrd
- Thrd is given with the flat of the palm, mild and released at once — never a fingertip, never a hold. With a goitre or a thyroid running fast, there is no work on the neck at all. Thrd
- Lt. Parkhoo is given lying on the side. A hip that has been fractured or replaced is not loaded. Lt. Parkhoo
- See a doctor or dentist: an ulcer that has not healed in 3 weeks, a painless white or red patch, or a lump in the mouth — especially if you smoke or chew tobacco, gutka or paan. This is a check for mouth cancer. Numbness, tingling or unsteadiness means a B12 blood test now.
- Cancer: if the person has cancer, (10) Pan, Thymus, Pit, Lu + Sh, Rt. Ov / Lt. Ov and (30) Medulla are never given — the therapist changes the plan.
- Keep taking the medicines your doctor prescribed. Neurotherapy works alongside your medical care, never instead of it.
Watch
Shows the Vitamin B12 treatment: (3) Gal and (7) Liv on the thigh and forearm, then (8) Left Parkhoo at the left hip with the patient lying on their side. It is given to support the body's absorption of vitamin B12.
How the Vitamin B₁₂ formula is given — (3) Gal (7) Liv (8) Lt. Parkhoo.
From Ayurveda and the kitchen
Test yourself
What research says
- Strong evidence
Pooling many studies, people with mouth ulcers that keep coming back had lower vitamin B12, folic acid and haemoglobin than people without them — B12 and haemoglobin showed the strongest link. This fits LMNT's reading of recurrent ulcers as a sign of B12 shortage.
No clinical trial of Neurotherapy for mouth ulcers has been published yet. Improvements reported by neurotherapists are clinical observations.
For you
People who smoke or chew tobacco, gutka or paan
Any sore, patch or lump in the mouth that has not gone in 3 weeks needs a doctor or dentist — even if it does not hurt.
People whose ulcers keep coming back
Ask your doctor for a blood test for B12, folic acid and iron, and ask your therapist to check both hips for the B12 and folic acid points.
People with asthma or heart disease
Tell your therapist — (4) Thrd is not given in asthma, and in heart patients (2) Thrd is used instead.
This page explains; it does not diagnose. Neurotherapy works alongside your medical care — keep taking the medicines your doctor prescribed, and see a doctor for any new or severe symptom.