What is Oral thrush

If you’ve ever noticed white pieces in your mouth that look like cottage cheese, chances are that’s a sign of what’s called oral thrush. While it can affect anyone, it mostly affects babies and older adults since it does result in a weakened immune system. While the condition is painless in general, there are some ways to prevent it from being a problem. This is basically a yeast infection that involves yellow or white patches, and is basically an overgrowth of what’s called candidiasis, and this is where the lesions come into play. This is found in the mouth, the skin, and the GI tract. A mouth that’s healthy and an immune system that’s good usually keep it in check, but if it’s left out of balance, it can lead to this. 

Symptoms 

Usually, there are some symptoms that come with this, and they include: 

• White patches on the tongue, gums, inner cheeks, and the mouth roof
• Soreness in your mouth 
• Bleeding if irritated 
• Loss of taste 
• Cottonmouth 
• A baby may get fussy when eating 
• Problems swallowing 

Usually your immune system works well to repel any sorts of microorganisms that are there. if oral thrush does appear, it might be due to an underlying medical condition as well. 

The Causes 

This is basically a yeast infection, and it can be generally harmless for those that are healthy. However, there are certain factors which play a role into how you may get this, and they include: 

• A weaker immune system 
• High stress levels 
• Diabetes 
• AIDS/HIV 
• STIs 
• Smoking 
• Antibiotics or corticosteroids 

Treatment 

If you’re seeing this, usually you need to go to the doctor and they’ll prescribe you some antifungal medications such as lozenges that are made with clotrimazole, or you may need to take a fluconazole as well. You also may want to possibly get a nystatin, which is a mouthwash that’s antifungal for adults and babies, and usually, the symptoms will stick around for up to 8 weeks if you don’t take care of this. Usually, home remedies also fix this too. For example, eating yogurt and cheese may help with the chemical balance, brushing your teeth may help, but avoid the white spots, and then rinse out the mouth with warm salt water as well. 

Preventing this 

The oral hygiene that you have is vital to oral thrush. Through brushing teeth, cleaning with a flosser, and also rinsing with a mouth wash, this is a simple, yet great way to prevent this from making your mouth worse and keeping this healthy too. You also should make sure that if you have dentures and night guards, you also clean those. 

Remember that candida does love those environments that are warm and moist, so make sure that you do take care of the area around you, and try to take precautions, especially for those moms with babies. Babies can get this a lot within the first year that they’re alive, so making sur that you minimize it is good. 

Some ways you can include: 

• Washing hands 
• Cleaning anything that’s in the area infected 
• Let your nipples dry after you breastfeed 
• Try to avoid bottle feeding 

Oral thrush especially in most people is common and goes away after a while. But if you notice that it’s persistent, you might want to talk to your doctor, to get the right kind of medical treatment, as they may be able to find the underlying reasons for what kinds of problems they are having.