Cut in Mouth First Aid, Treatment, Healing Time, and Precautions

It’s very easy to get a cut in your mouth. Oral injuries can accidentally happen during regular daily activities. Playing sports, doing yard work, accidentally biting your cheek while chewing, falling down, and even chewing on your pencil can all lead to an oral cut.

While there’s a relatively small amount of space in your mouth, the area has a lot of blood vessels. This means oral cuts and scrapes can bleed a lot, even if the injury isn’t serious.

While most oral injuries aren’t serious and can be treated at home, they should be properly cared for to avoid infection and irregular scarring.

Read below to learn how to treat an oral cut and know when to get professional help.

For cuts inside your mouth such as tongue, gums, inside of the cheek, and roof of the mouth:

1. Wash your hands before handling the injury.
2. Clean the cut by rinsing with water.
3. Remove any debris in your mouth.
4. Slow bleeding by gently pressing a clean towel to the wound, and hold it there as long as necessary until the bleeding stops.
5. Reduce swelling and pain by sucking on a popsicle. Avoid giving ice cubes to children due to choking risks.
6. Don’t apply any creams to the inside of the mouth, but check on the wound every day and call a doctor if it isn’t healing properly or if pain worsens.

Following first aid, home treatment of oral cuts can help decrease pain and swelling, and promote healing. Try this:

• Rinse with saltwater once a day to aid healing.
• Consider arnica supplements from the drugstore or health food store to decrease swelling and bruising.
• Chewing garlic is a folk remedy believed to kill bacteria in the mouth and prevent infection. Don’t chew garlic if the wound is still open. Discontinue if there’s any burning sensation.
• Avoid foods that might sting, such as citrus and spicy food.
• Suck on a popsicle or hold an ice pack on the outside of your face near the affected area to numb pain and decrease swelling.

Possible effects of getting a mouth injury include:

Infection

Any time your skin is opened and exposed, you run the risk of infection. Viruses and bacteria can enter body tissues and blood, causing further irritation or dangerous complications.

Scarring

A cut on the lip, especially on your lip line or in the crease where upper and lower lips meet, can alter the exterior shape of your mouth. If the cut is large or jagged, a doctor may offer stitches to help things heal evenly.

Usually, you can properly care for an oral wound at home. However, seek urgent care if:

• bleeding doesn’t stop after 10 minutes
• the cut is deep
• the cut is larger than half an inch
• the cut was caused by puncture, from rusty metal, or from an animal or human bite
• the edges are very jagged and not straight
• there’s debris you can’t clear away
• there’s any sign of infection, like discoloration, it feels warm to the touch, redness, or draining fluid

Rarely does a scrape in the mouth require medical attention. Below are some reasons you may want to see a doctor.

Stitches

Stitches may be required to stop bleeding in a very deep cut. If the cut is on the lip, they also help keep the lip lines and border in shape.

Antibiotics

If you were exposed to bacterial infection, a doctor may prescribe antibiotics. Always take your full round of antibiotics — don’t just stop when you feel better.

Tetanus shot

Call a doctor right away if your cut was caused by a puncture and you’re not up to date on your tetanus vaccine — or if you don’t know the last time you had a tetanus shot.

Cuts inside the mouth heal faster than cuts anywhere else on the body. They tend to heal on their own, in a matter of days, without stitches.

Scientists have studied why oral wounds heal faster. The rich blood supply in the face and mouth help speed recovery. Saliva promotes healing and also contains proteins that aid tissue repair.

Research also shows that the tissues inside your mouth make new cells faster than other parts of the body.

You can help your cut heal faster by keeping it clean and being very careful around the area to avoid further trauma or damage.

While accidents happen, here are some specific ways you can prevent oral injuries:

• Chew slowly to avoid biting your cheek or tongue, which is easier to do when your mouth is swollen.
• Care for braces by following safety instructions from your dentist.
• Never run while holding something sharp.
• Don’t use your teeth as scissors to open packages and bottles.
• Don’t chew on pens, pencils, or fingernails.
• Wear a mouthguard when playing contact sports.

You can usually care for oral cuts and scrapes with first aid at home. It’s important to keep the wound clean and check on it daily. Call a doctor if the cut is severe or there are signs of infection. The good news is that cuts in the mouth naturally heal very fast.

Cut in Mouth First Aid, Treatment, Healing Time, and Precautions

It’s very easy to get a cut in your mouth. Oral injuries can accidentally happen during regular daily activities. Playing sports, doing yard work, accidentally biting your cheek while chewing, falling down, and even chewing on your pencil can all lead to an oral cut.

While there’s a relatively small amount of space in your mouth, the area has a lot of blood vessels. This means oral cuts and scrapes can bleed a lot, even if the injury isn’t serious.

While most oral injuries aren’t serious and can be treated at home, they should be properly cared for to avoid infection and irregular scarring.

Read below to learn how to treat an oral cut and know when to get professional help.

For cuts inside your mouth such as tongue, gums, inside of the cheek, and roof of the mouth:

1. Wash your hands before handling the injury.
2. Clean the cut by rinsing with water.
3. Remove any debris in your mouth.
4. Slow bleeding by gently pressing a clean towel to the wound, and hold it there as long as necessary until the bleeding stops.
5. Reduce swelling and pain by sucking on a popsicle. Avoid giving ice cubes to children due to choking risks.
6. Don’t apply any creams to the inside of the mouth, but check on the wound every day and call a doctor if it isn’t healing properly or if pain worsens.

Following first aid, home treatment of oral cuts can help decrease pain and swelling, and promote healing. Try this:

• Rinse with saltwater once a day to aid healing.
• Consider arnica supplements from the drugstore or health food store to decrease swelling and bruising.
• Chewing garlic is a folk remedy believed to kill bacteria in the mouth and prevent infection. Don’t chew garlic if the wound is still open. Discontinue if there’s any burning sensation.
• Avoid foods that might sting, such as citrus and spicy food.
• Suck on a popsicle or hold an ice pack on the outside of your face near the affected area to numb pain and decrease swelling.

Possible effects of getting a mouth injury include:

Infection

Any time your skin is opened and exposed, you run the risk of infection. Viruses and bacteria can enter body tissues and blood, causing further irritation or dangerous complications.

Scarring

A cut on the lip, especially on your lip line or in the crease where upper and lower lips meet, can alter the exterior shape of your mouth. If the cut is large or jagged, a doctor may offer stitches to help things heal evenly.

Usually, you can properly care for an oral wound at home. However, seek urgent care if:

• bleeding doesn’t stop after 10 minutes
• the cut is deep
• the cut is larger than half an inch
• the cut was caused by puncture, from rusty metal, or from an animal or human bite
• the edges are very jagged and not straight
• there’s debris you can’t clear away
• there’s any sign of infection, like discoloration, it feels warm to the touch, redness, or draining fluid

Rarely does a scrape in the mouth require medical attention. Below are some reasons you may want to see a doctor.

Stitches

Stitches may be required to stop bleeding in a very deep cut. If the cut is on the lip, they also help keep the lip lines and border in shape.

Antibiotics

If you were exposed to bacterial infection, a doctor may prescribe antibiotics. Always take your full round of antibiotics — don’t just stop when you feel better.

Tetanus shot

Call a doctor right away if your cut was caused by a puncture and you’re not up to date on your tetanus vaccine — or if you don’t know the last time you had a tetanus shot.

Cuts inside the mouth heal faster than cuts anywhere else on the body. They tend to heal on their own, in a matter of days, without stitches.

Scientists have studied why oral wounds heal faster. The rich blood supply in the face and mouth help speed recovery. Saliva promotes healing and also contains proteins that aid tissue repair.

Research also shows that the tissues inside your mouth make new cells faster than other parts of the body.

You can help your cut heal faster by keeping it clean and being very careful around the area to avoid further trauma or damage.

While accidents happen, here are some specific ways you can prevent oral injuries:

• Chew slowly to avoid biting your cheek or tongue, which is easier to do when your mouth is swollen.
• Care for braces by following safety instructions from your dentist.
• Never run while holding something sharp.
• Don’t use your teeth as scissors to open packages and bottles.
• Don’t chew on pens, pencils, or fingernails.
• Wear a mouthguard when playing contact sports.

You can usually care for oral cuts and scrapes with first aid at home. It’s important to keep the wound clean and check on it daily. Call a doctor if the cut is severe or there are signs of infection. The good news is that cuts in the mouth naturally heal very fast.

Stomatitis – treatment for children and adults ❘ Orthodontist Complex

Depending on the cause of occurrence, the World Health Organization distinguishes the following types of stomatitis:

• traumatic – damage to the oral cavity occurs due to physical, mechanical or chemical trauma;
• infectious – occurs due to tissue damage by viral, bacterial, fungal infections, spirochetes and fusospirella flora;
• symptomatic – manifested due to diseases of the internal organs.

Depending on the manifestation form, stomatitis is subdivided into:

• ulcerative;
• catarrhal;
• aphthous;
• gangrenous.

Let’s take a closer look at the most common and most dangerous types of pathology.

Candidiasis

Candidal stomatitis caused by yeast-like fungi is most common in children, but can also occur in adults due to weakened immunity due to hypothermia, antibiotic treatment, etc.

The source of the disease may be an infected person and environmental objects, or an excess of the permissible amount of own opportunistic bacteria.

Treatment of this type of stomatitis in adults begins with the elimination of factors contributing to the development of candidiasis, and then prescribe antifungal agents, such as a suspension of nystatin – to treat the affected areas and fluconazole – for oral administration.

Children’s stomatitis is treated with 2% alkaline soda solution, 20% sodium tetraborate solution, as well as special antifungal ointments based on natamycin or levrin.

White plaque on the tongue and oral mucosa

Herpetic

In 80% of clinical cases, herpetic stomatitis is first diagnosed in children aged 1–3 years. The herpes simplex virus enters the body of a child upon contact with a virus carrier against the background of a weakened immune system and remains there throughout a person’s life in a latent form or becomes recurrent.

The disease is highly contagious, transmitted by droplets or contact, and is often acute, causing fever, diarrhoea, vomiting, and nausea.

Treatment of herpetic stomatitis in the oral cavity involves taking antiviral drugs, for example, acyclovir, immunocorrective drugs – interferon, antihistamines – diazolin, as well as local therapy: rinses and baths from a solution of furacilin or 0.1% chlorhexidine.

Lesions of the tongue and palate with herpetic stomatitis

Mechanical

The chronic form occurs due to the presence of carious teeth, tartar, dental anomalies or poorly installed prostheses.

The depth of the mucosal lesion varies, sometimes up to the muscle layer. In a severe form of the flow, secondary microflora, for example, fusospirochetes and yeast, joins mechanical stomatitis, which is why the wound does not heal for months.

Treatment of chronic mechanical stomatitis requires elimination of the irritant, antiseptic treatment of ulcers, the use of keratoplastic preparations and applications of painkillers.

Symptomatic

Appears due to diseases of the cardiovascular, endocrine, nervous systems, gastrointestinal tract, blood diseases and is considered a secondary sign of the main problem, as a result of which it needs to remove the inflammatory process and local treatment against the background of the treatment of the underlying disease.

Aphthous (recurrent stomatitis)

Common in both adults and children. Its main symptom is the formation of painful aphthae on the oral mucosa, which in some cases can merge into extensive lesions of the mucosa. The disease often develops against the background of a lack of vitamins, weakened immunity and systemic diseases, for example, the large intestine.

Treatment of aphthous stomatitis in adults is symptomatic and involves the use of analgesics, local anesthetics, silver nitrate, CO ₂ laser and tetracycline suspensions. With frequent relapses or extensive lesions for the treatment of aphthous stomatitis, prednisolone is additionally prescribed in combination with imudon.

Aphthae on the lip

With proper treatment, the disease lasts 7-10 days. Treatment of aphthous stomatitis begins with a change in diet and takes place against the background of taking antiallergic drugs, which a specialist can prescribe only after an examination. Dentists recommend giving up honey, nuts, chocolate, citrus fruits and other allergenic foods. Spicy and hard food is undesirable. To speed up healing, the doctor treats the aft with antiseptic and anti-inflammatory agents.

Painkillers are prescribed for severe pain. If necessary, they carry out sanitation of the oral cavity: professional teeth cleaning, elimination of caries.

Ulcerative

The next stage of aphthous stomatitis is necrotic or ulcerative stomatitis, which is characterized by the formation of extensive erosive foci and an increase in body temperature. In the absence of timely treatment, deep tissue necrosis is possible, up to the muscles of the oral cavity, tooth loss and an increase in temperature to critical levels.

Treatment of ulcerative stomatitis involves the removal of necrotic tissue, the selection of a drinking and nutrition regimen, the use of analgesics, as well as antibacterial agents and antiseptics, for example, metrogil denta; in severe pathology – antibiotics and immunostimulating drugs.

Mouth ulcers in stomatitis

Although stomatitis has not been confirmed to be contagious, it should be remembered that some of its pathogens are contagious. First of all, this applies to candidal and herpetic forms.

Gangrenous

Noma or gangrenous stomatitis is the most dangerous type of pathology, in which there is a progressive destruction of the tissues of the gums, cheeks, tongue and face. The cause of its occurrence has not been fully elucidated, but there are versions about the development of the disease due to the addition of an anaerobic infection. Especially many cases of noma have been recorded on the African continent.

In order to cure gangrenous stomatitis, drug therapy is used in the form of high doses of penicillin in combination with metronidazole and a general correction of the patient’s well-being.

Soft tissue wounds – health articles

11/10/2022

What are soft tissue wounds?

Soft tissue injuries include injuries to the skin, mucous membrane, deep-lying tissues (subcutaneous tissue, muscles, etc.), as well as tendons, vessels and nerves. As a result of violation of the integrity of the skin, microbial contamination of the wound surface occurs, which can lead to the development of infection.

According to the damaging factor, wounds are divided into mechanical, thermal (burn) and chemical; on the instrument of injury – on wounds from blunt, sharp objects, tools and weapons, firearms and weapons; according to the nature of the damage, the wounds are classified into bruised, torn, combined, bitten, stab, cut, stab-cut, chopped, sawn, combined bullet, shot, fragmentation.

According to the depth of damage, superficial wounds are distinguished, located in different layers of the skin, and deep, passing in deeper tissues. Wounds of internal organs and joints that communicate with the external environment through a wound channel are called open wounds, and wounds whose wound channels pass through cavities or terminate in them are called penetrating wounds. Wounds of internal organs that do not communicate with the external environment are classified as closed.

Causes

Cut wounds result from the direct impact of a sharp weapon on the surface of the skin.

Chopping wounds are caused by lowering a sharp weapon on the skin at an angle.

Puncture wounds are the result of deep penetration of a sharp thin instrument. Possible injury to the cavities or joints.

Contusion wounds occur when some part of the body comes into contact with a hard obstacle and there is a solid support in the form of the bones of the skull or other bone.

Crushed, crushed wounds are formed due to the impact of a blunt instrument with a wide surface when opposed to a solid support.

Bite wounds. As a result of a bite by an animal or a person, highly virulent causative agents of wound infection can enter the wound.

Symptoms

A closed injury can be suspected by knowing the mechanism of injury (eg, blunt force impact) and by the presence of one or more of the following: bruising, swelling, pain.
Some signs suggest the nature of the injury. For example, swelling and deformity may indicate a closed fracture. A bruise on the head, bloody discharge from the nose, ears and mouth – an injury to the cervical spine or brain is possible. Bruises on the chest, deformation, violation of symmetry – a chest injury is possible with damage to the ribs and sternum. Respiratory failure may indicate lung injury. Large bruises on the abdomen – possible injury to the internal organ.

Signs of a wound vary depending on the type and depth of tissue damage. As a rule, any damage accompanies pain, possibly a violation of the integrity of the skin, as well as bleeding.

Diagnosis

Small, superficial wounds with no general symptoms are diagnosed based on the clinical presentation. A detailed study is carried out during the primary treatment of the wound. With extensive and deep wounds with a violation of the general condition, additional studies are needed, the list of which is determined taking into account the location of the damage. In case of injuries in the chest area, a chest x-ray is prescribed, in case of damage to the abdomen, an x-ray of the abdominal cavity, ultrasound or laparoscopy, etc. If a violation of the integrity of blood vessels and nerves is suspected, a consultation of a neurosurgeon and a vascular surgeon is required.

Treatment

First aid consists of primary surgical treatment of the wound, during which foreign bodies are removed from the wound, bleeding stops, the wound is washed with antiseptics, and non-viable tissues are excised. The issue of prevention of tetanus and rabies (if the wound is bitten) is also being resolved. Wounds with a pronounced inflammatory process are not sutured, they are drained. An infected wound heals by secondary intention. Dressings and drains are changed daily. General treatment consists of anti-inflammatory therapy, the introduction of hemostatic agents, painkillers.

In case of profuse blood loss, the issue of compensating the volume of circulating blood (CBV) is solved, blood substitutes, blood components are introduced. Subsequently, with severe cicatricial contractures and deformities, a restorative operation can be repeated.

Most superficial wounds do not bleed much. Therefore, help consists in bandaging the wound. Before this procedure, the edges are smeared with an antiseptic, making sure that it does not get into the wound.

The wound is covered with a sterile dressing and bandaged. If the edges of the wound are strongly dispersed, before applying the bandages, they must be brought together (but not until they close) and fixed in this position with 2-3 strips of adhesive tape.

The wound must not be washed with water (risk of infection), nor with alcohol or tincture of iodine. The disinfectant solution, getting into the wound, causes the death of damaged cells, and also causes significant pain. No ointment should be applied to the wound, and cotton should not be placed directly into the wound.

Vitamin therapy should not be forgotten. Vitamin deficiency sharply slows down reparative (restorative) processes.

To accelerate wound healing, proper nutrition of patients is important, especially those who have undergone traumatic shock, severe infection or major surgery. They need a complete diet with an increased amount of protein and vitamins. Physiotherapy exercises are indicated primarily for purulent wounds of the upper extremities.