When a mouth ulcer is worth a second look

Mouths heal quickly. A cheek bitten while eating, a sore from a sharp tooth, a burn from hot chai — these are usually gone inside a week or ten days and nobody needs to see them. So the useful rule is not about how much something hurts. It is about how long it stays.

Two weeks

Anything in the mouth that is still there after two weeks should be looked at by a doctor. That is the whole rule, and it is worth knowing because the things on the list below are easy to live with and easy to keep putting off.

Worth showing a doctor if it lasts longer than two weeks

• An ulcer or sore in the mouth that does not heal
• A white or red patch on the tongue, gums or inner cheek
• A lump in the mouth, neck, or under the jaw
• Difficulty opening the mouth fully, or a burning feeling with spicy food
• Pain or difficulty while swallowing, or a change in your voice
• A tooth that becomes loose for no clear reason

Most of these turn out not to be cancer

That is not a list of cancer symptoms. It is a list of things worth ten minutes of a doctor's time, and most of them turn out to be something else — an infection, a denture rubbing, a sharp edge on a tooth. Finding out takes one appointment. Often a clinical examination is enough to settle it, without any test at all.

Why we write about this one

Oral and head-neck cancer is the most common cancer we treat in Saurashtra. In this region the most common cause is long-term use of tobacco in any form — cigarettes, bidi, mawa, gutkha, pan masala or supari — and alcohol adds to the risk. If tobacco is part of your life, or was, then knowing what your own mouth normally looks like is worth the two minutes it takes.

Checking your own mouth

You need a mirror and good light, and about two minutes. Do it once a month. You are not looking for cancer — you are looking for anything that has changed and stayed changed. We have written the steps out, one part of the mouth at a time, with what is normal beside each one.