Metal Mouth Message Board

My tongue hurts!!! It's pretty much the whole top surface of my tongue, from the tip all the way back, and side to side. I've got the nance, and the wires for that can irritate me a bit, but those are just in the molar/premolar area on the sides.

Is it possible that my entire tongue hurts from the nance? Or is there something else going on? It's happened sort of off and on, but it's been hurting pretty much for 2-3 days straight now. I'm getting to the point where I'm talking odd again because it hurts to talk.

I've also been stressed and staying up late or all night trying to meet deadlines, so maybe that's got something to do with it.

Just wondering if anybody else has had a similar experience. I'm probably going to go in on Thursday to get an archwire clipped, so I can ask the assistant then, but I was wondering if any of you have had all-over tongue pain from a localized device.

Oh, and my tongue looks normal. No redness, no swelling, no indentations, no inflammation... nothing.

Nevermind... And scratch that whole "the tongue looks normal" thing, too.

My poor tongue is all red now and started bleeding when I brushed. Plus, the roof of my mouth is hurting.

I'm pretty sure it's a lovely case of thrush. Thanks advair! Guess I'll call the ortho tomorrow and see if he'll prescribe for it, since I need to go in for a wire clipping anyway. Otherwise it's off to the student health clinic. Oh joy, oh rapture.

ouch Cowlypso, that sounds really nasty I've never had mouth thrush but I've had it "down below" and I know what utter misery it is.
I understand it can be cleared up real quick with antifungal tablets or lozenges.
in the meantime perhaps eat something like plain yogurt as that is certainly soothing for thrush in other areas and I'd hope it would soothe your mouth too.

Hope you soon feel better!

Hi Cowlypso,
I am so sorry for you it is painful, but here is some advice. I have a lingual arch that is similiar to a nance without a button or anchor, but it takes a long time for your toung to get used to it. Now, here is the thing, I take advair and have had thrush several times since I started using it. But when I was braced at the end of November, it was almost constant until about three weeks ago. There is a new advair that was just released not too long ago and my doctor decided to try it. He figured that the power was probably getting lodged in the metal, and even though I rinsed, brushed and used a mouth rinse each time, there was still enough to cause the infection. CALL you doctor and see if he will prescribe the Advair HFA with a spacer instead of the power. It has helped tremendously! I cannot believe the difference, even my toung has healed and is getting used to the appliance. Lee

Oh, here is another thing that I forgot to tell you. I found that if I rinsed my mouth twice a day with a very, very mild solution of water, about 1/2 cup with maybe a half teaspoon to teaspoon of hydrogen peroxide that the thrush cleared up faster and it also helped with the irritation on my toung from the lingual. Tastes awful but it did work. Lee

Interesting. I'm definitely going to ask the ortho about whether the advair is getting trapped in the nance and causing issues. I got an appointment for 12:40, so things should be getting better soon!

I hadn't heard about the new advair at all. I wonder if it's covered by my insurance. I think I would be nervous to try it, though, because I tried an inhaler with the HFA propellant a year ago and it caused an immediate spasm of my lungs and I was afraid I was going to die. So I don't know if it was a reaction to the propellant or the particular medication.

Cowlypso, I thought the same thing about the new advair, at first that is. I have been through a few inhalers and never had a lot of trouble, but never had much success either. Chances are it was the medication, not the propellant that caused your spasm, but you should discuss it with your doc and see what he/she thinks. Perhaps, you could even try it with a sample in the office to make sure that you didn't have a reaction to the propellant. I can tell you that it was worth changing and my mouth hasn't felt this good for some time.

Be sure to let us know what your ortho says, maybe he has some good advice. Lee

Well, I went to the ortho to get my wires clipped. I had only noticed the lower archwire poking me, but the upper wire needed to be clipped, too. So the good news is that I've got progress!

The ortho looked at my mouth and didn't really have a clue, although he didn't think it looked like a yeast infection. So I thought maybe I'd suck it up and see if it went away, but it's pretty painful and I noticed these pinpoint white spots all over it. So I headed over to student health for another opinion.

The conclusion is that it's some sort of viral infection. She didn't explain the white spots exactly, but she said that it's swollen and I've got ruptured blood vessels in my soft palate and all kinds of crazy crud going on. Plus a fever, and sky-high blood pressure because I'm miserable. She said it's geographic tongue and in my case caused by a virus, althoug I'm not entirely sure about the geographic tongue part because most of what I've read says that it's not caused by viruses. But anyway, it's also affecting my palate and throat, so there's some sort of virus using my mouth as a playground.

So, my tongue has a cold. I can't come down with normal diseases. I've always got to get the weird stuff. Her advice, of course, was fluids, rest, and OTC pain meds. I can do the fluids and meds, but I've got a midterm assignment due tomorrow... Oh well. She said it would get better within a week.

Hope your feeling better soon. Lee

nickel allergy?

I finally got my assignment turned in! It was supposed to be due Tuesday, but I wasn't finished, so he gave me until Thursday. So I was up all night Monday night, got 4 hours of sleep Tuesday night, and was up all night last night. Finished it and printed out the last few pages at 10:15 this morning, then walked upstairs to class that started at 10:20 and handed it in. I had to hold office hours in the afternoon, but I came home at 5 (after a quick stop at the store for juice, broth, and ice cream) and promptly fell asleep.

I'm definitely buying the theory that it's just some sort of crazy viral infection. Sort of like a cold with a sore throat, except that it got a little misdirected. It started with my tongue, then added in my palate, and now it's migrating down my throat as well. Plus fever, swollen lymph nodes, a bit of congestion, and a little bit of a cough now.

She said it was probably either a rhinovirus (that's the one that causes the common cold) or a coxsackie virus (those cause several crazy things, including mouth issues). But I'm guessing that it's just some sort of virus that, if I hadn't been staying up all night every night totally stressed out trying to get my work done, would have just manifested as a minor cold. But since I wreaked my immune system with stress and lack of sleep, the virus got to have a little too much fun and end up in weird places.

The doctor did suggest salt water rinses, but I haven't really been home enough to try them. I could try one now. Warm liquids have helped. I've been drinking vegetable broth and hot chocolate and such.

Fortunately, I can take some time off now and rest.

Thanks for the well-wished everyone. I slept a lot Thursday night, slept most of the afternoon Friday, got a good night's sleep Friday night, and have spent most of today dozing on the couch.

And I'm starting to feel better! The tongue soreness began to go away yesterday on the middle of the tongue, so it was only the edges that hurt. Today, it hardly hurts at all. Still feeling a little stuffy and such, but so much better.

Glad to hear you're on the mend