Insides Of Cheeks Damaged By Teeth, White, Swollen. Quit Tobacco. Suggest Medicines?

Posted on Fri, 5 Oct 2012

Question: hi, the inside of my cheeks look white and seem a little damaged by my teeth.there is a little bit of swelling of the cheek too which is visible from the outside. i used to chew tabacco but this problem is there ever since i quit tobacco about 3 weeks back. kindly advice which medicines i can take to cure this

just forgot to add that my mouth stinks too, very lousy smell.

Answered by Dr. Hema Yadav (2 hours later)

Hello XXXXXXX
Thanks for posting your query.
You are most probably having a soft tissue infection or inflammation causing ulceration and swelling of the oral mucosa.These can be treated with antiinflammatory analgesics like acetaminophen,ibuprofen to relieve the swelling and pain and antibiotics to prevent or treat infection.
However,some side effects of smokeless tobacco chewing are gum disease and localized soft tissue inflammation, increased incidence of tooth decay, oral cancer, and throat cancer. It's probably not cancer, since its sudden and acute whereas cancer develops gradually ,but there are cases of smokeless tobacco users having cancers detected even after they quit.
So to be on the safer side its best to get yourself examined by a specialist (orofaciomaxillary surgeon or an ENT specialist) for confirmation of diagnosis and appropriate management.
Meanwhile you should practice adequate oral hygiene and use warm saline or alcohol based mouth gargles.
You may find some temporary relief in local application of anaesthetic gels (xytee, stomela etc) as per your doctors prescription .
But for actual cure and ruling out any serious conditions,do get a thorough evaluation and treatment from a specialist.
Hope I have answered your query

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar