How to treat wounds and ulcers if you bite your cheek, tongue or lip

Biting a cheek, lip or tongue usually occurs unexpectedly: the sharp pain seems to paralyze the person, and the mood deteriorates for a long time.

It’s good if the bite was not strong, and after a couple of hours the sufferer has already forgotten about the incident. But sometimes a bite provokes a real disaster, which then takes a long time to heal. And regular and frequent bites of the oral mucosa or tongue can be a harbinger of a dangerous condition.

What do you need to know about “self-bites” in order to take the necessary measures in time?

Why do we bite ourselves on the lips and cheeks?

There are many reasons for accidental bites.
Hasty and careless people often bite themselves. An enthusiastic conversation with intense emotions, plus a quick lunch - and now the person has already bitten his tongue or lip. Those who like to snack during physical activity are also at risk. The brain cannot simultaneously process two complex tasks, and while a person is focused on one, the second one fails. Cheeks are often bitten during active play or sports.

For an accidental bite to occur, it is not necessary to have an abnormal jaw structure or mental problems. But if there is one or the other, the risk of biting yourself increases significantly, even in a calm environment or during sleep.

People who suffer from bruxism may clench their jaws so tightly during sleep that a loud grinding noise is heard. In this case, the mucous membrane of the cheek or tongue may become trapped between the teeth. In addition to a psychological reason, bruxism also has a dental one. Those who neglect treatment risk one day simply biting off a piece of their cheek or tongue.

Certain features of the dental and jaw structure can also cause persistent biting of the cheek, tongue or lip area:

an incorrectly installed filling, the edges of which are bulging;
sharp projections on chewing teeth;
incorrect jaw bite;
teeth growing in the wrong places in a row;
poor-quality dentures in the mouth;
“eights” that grow obliquely;
sharp tooth chips.

Separately, nervous people and people with mental disorders should be highlighted. They can “gnaw” the mucous membranes of their mouth for a long time and not even notice it until medical intervention is needed.

Everything you need to know about chronic cheek biting

While most people bite the inside of their cheek as a result of a freak accident, there are those who do it deliberately over a long period. Chronic cheek biting is a type of repetitive behavior that is associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Biting the cheek and other areas of the mouth affects approximately 750 out of 1 million people. Research shows that this behavior is more common in women than men.

The phenomenon can affect people of all ages, but is more common in children.

A 2005 study found that the prevalence of cheek and lip biting in children aged 2 to 17 years in the United States was slightly below 2%.

Causes

There are many reasons why people bite their cheeks. It can occur as a result of an accident, or is sometimes related to a mental health condition. Careless chewing or talking while eating can lead to such embarrassment.

The worst thing is that accidental biting can cause injury and inflammation. If biting is involuntary but regular, then this may indicate a pathology of the bite and TMJ. Unconscious biting can also occur during sleep.

The situation is much more serious with chronic biting, which requires appropriate medical attention. The current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) includes it among obsessive-compulsive and related disorders. Other body-oriented repetitive disorders include hair pulling, nail biting, and lip biting.

Some researchers believe that repetitive body-oriented behavior may have a genetic factor.

If so, having a family member with a similar disorder may increase the risk of their relatives developing the condition.

Researchers are now trying to determine which genes may play a role in body-oriented repetitive disorders, and what may help doctors diagnose and treat this behavior in the future.

Many other factors can also contribute to a person developing chronic cheek biting. These include stress, as well as emotional and environmental factors.

The consequences of this “habit” are not the most pleasant: as a result of chronic injury, the mucosal area may become thicker, covered with scars and have a paler hue.

Sometimes the affected area may become inflamed, becoming cyanotic.

Complications

When the surface of the buccal mucosa becomes uneven, a person may experience a feeling of discomfort and a strong desire to continue biting the area to create a smooth surface. In more severe cases, tissue transplantation must be done in this area.

How to deal with the disease?

First, you need to make sure that there is no bite pathology. Sometimes it is necessary to prescribe a mouth guard, which can prevent any further damage and allow the wound to heal. It is recommended to use the mouthguard until the tissue has completely healed. In case of chronic biting, it is necessary to consult an appropriate specialist.

One of the following types of therapy may be offered:

cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT);
habit elimination training;
comprehensive behavioral treatment;
dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT.

Sometimes medications may be recommended in addition to psychotherapy.

The most effective treatment a person can receive is treatment that addresses both the behavior and the underlying cause. A therapist will help a person understand what is driving their cheek-biting urge and develop a plan to manage the behavior.

There is no convincing evidence that special diets, electrical stimulation, hypnosis, massage, or other practices are effective in treating repetitive body-oriented behavior.

Chronic cheek biting requires medical attention to address the cause of the behavior. Some people for whom this is a self-harming behavior are unaware of the problem and are unable to seek medical help. Relatives of a person with such behavior should convince him to see a doctor.

Source: https://dentalmagazine.ru/events-opinions/vse-chto-nuzhno-znat-o-hronicheskom-prikusyvanii-shheki.html

First aid - help yourself

Not every injury after a bite requires urgent attention to a medical facility, especially in the first day. But any bite requires reinsurance - taking measures at home. Therefore, if a person has bitten his tongue, the inside of his cheek or his lip, regardless of whether a visit to the doctor is planned or not, he needs to follow a number of simple recommendations:

Rinse your mouth with cool water . The cold will provoke vasospasm and help the bleeding to subside, and also minimize pain. If your lip is bitten, apply a sterile bandage soaked in cold water to it and hold for a while.
Brush your teeth . Next, clean after every meal in order to disinfect the oral cavity as much as possible.
Boil chamomile (St. John's wort), cool and use as a mouth rinse three times a day . Apply a cotton swab soaked in herbal solution to the bitten lip.
Go to the pharmacy and buy any antiseptic lozenges or spray (you can take Miramistin, it is safe and disinfects the oral cavity well). It is necessary to use these products after each rinsing and brushing of your teeth.
Eliminate all hot and cold foods/drinks from your diet . They add pain, especially if you bite your lip or tongue and an ulcer forms there. Irritation from high or low temperatures prevents the wound from healing.
Add more fresh vegetables, fruits, herbs and meat to the menu . Vitamins C and B are especially useful. They speed up the healing process. On the first day of such treatment, the wound should heal and the pain should subside. But you need to continue the procedures for at least another 2-3 days.

First actions after biting

If an ulcer forms after biting your cheek, you need to remember whether it was in that place before the soft tissue was injured. If you do, don’t put off visiting the dentist, because this could be a symptom of a serious illness.

If after biting your cheek there is bleeding from the inside, you need to rinse your mouth with clean water. The low temperature that affects the wound causes spasm of the blood vessels, which helps stop bleeding. In addition, this will help reduce the intensity of the syndrome.

If the pain is so severe that a person cannot even chew food normally, you can take any painkiller. A compress made from a piece of gauze previously soaked in an anesthetic (solution) will also help reduce the intensity of pain. Any antiseptic can be used to rinse the mouth, which will help speed up healing.

If an ulcer has formed, some erroneous actions can cause harm and aggravate the course of inflammation, namely:

the use of alcohol solutions as a disinfectant (this may include a product called Lugol, iodine tincture, brilliant green, etc.);
touching the bitten area with dirty hands;
rinsing the mouth with any hot decoction, because high temperature increases bleeding;
self-piercing of the formed bubble;
unauthorized self-prescription of antibiotics taken orally and locally.

What are the consequences of “self-eating”?

If a “self-bite” happens occasionally, and after that the person follows all the rules of hygiene and oral care, the wound in most cases heals successfully. But sometimes, due to a careless attitude towards oneself or due to some other factors, secondary conditions develop - dangerous to health and life.

"Language Wars"

The best thing that can happen with a tongue injury is long-term pain.

This fleshy organ takes a long and painful time to heal, especially if the person has bitten his tongue very hard and the wound is deep.

Other consequences of bite are associated with infection and represent a chain of conditions arising from each other:

Glossitis. A tongue subject to inflammation changes its color and structure. There is discomfort, a slight burning sensation, and the person may lose the sense of taste.
Abscess . The tongue begins to swell from the inside, and the person cannot eat or speak normally due to pain.
Phlegmon . The inflammation reaches the point that the patient is no longer able to swallow or even breathe normally. Such a person is indicated for urgent hospitalization.

Damage to the buccal mucosa

Soft tissues heal quickly, but at the same time a pathogenic agent may have time to get into the wound. Typically, injuries to the buccal mucosa accompanied by infection lead to the following complications:

Aphthous stomatitis . The disease is prone to relapse. It is a collection of small ulcers on areas of the oral mucosa that cause unbearable pain to a person.
Herpetic stomatitis . Herpes lives in the bloodstream of 99% of people, so with low immunity there is a high risk that this virus will “wake up” and colonize the wound. With such a lesion, crowded small bubbles with liquid inside settle on the mucous membrane around the injured area.
Afta Bednar . The disease mainly affects children. A special type of bacteria begins to multiply in the wound due to poor oral hygiene. The mucous membrane becomes covered with a yellowish coating.

Teeth on lips...

There is a lot of loose fiber in the lips and a strong bite can not only cause a wound, but cut off part of it. After biting your lip, the following complications may occur:

Hematoma . Internal bleeding after biting can be quite severe. The lip swells, becomes painful, and its functions are partially impaired. A hematoma can have a complication in the form of purulent inflammation, which is very dangerous. The temperature rises to 40 degrees.
Inflammation . When an infection gets into the wound, the lip swells and fills with purulent exudate. The patient feels an unpleasant odor emanating from the site of injury. The condition requires urgent treatment.

What to do if ulcers and wounds appear at the site of the bite?

If, as a result of a bite, a scattering of ulcers or other formations have formed on the mucous membrane of the cheeks, lips or tongue that cause pain and prevent you from eating normally, the first thing you need to do is consult a dentist, who will determine the nature of the complication and prescribe the correct treatment.

But what to do if a person bites his tongue or lip out of town or on the weekend and there is no opportunity to urgently visit a doctor? Then you can try to help yourself at home by performing the following procedures.

For language:

to speed up the healing of ulcers, you can use Cholisal gel or regular brilliant green;
dilute Furacilin in plain water in a 1:1 ratio and use as a mouth rinse;
lubricate the ulcers with hydrogen peroxide twice a day;
folk method: brew a herbal mixture from oak bark, chamomile, thyme, sage and St. John's wort, then cool and rinse your mouth, trying to hold the broth longer on the tongue.

Providing assistance to the buccal mucosa:

in case of moderate pain, the ulcers can be cauterized with hydrogen peroxide, Chlorhexidine or Furacilin - these drugs are freely sold in any pharmacy;
in case of severe pain, it is recommended to buy a suspension of glycerin and novocaine (5 or 10%) and treat the painful points;
to make ulcers heal faster, they are lubricated with Kalanchoe juice or corticosteroid ointments;
traditional method: mash two cloves of garlic, add a spoonful of yogurt or curdled milk, mix and apply to painful areas for a few minutes.

If you bite your lip:

lubricate the lesions with honey or soda solution;
treat with brilliant green (but it is very painful);
buy Acyclovir ointment and apply to ulcers located on the outside of the lip;
apply tea bags to the affected areas;

Bite the cheek from the inside

While most people accidentally bite the lining of their cheeks and lips, there are people who intentionally bite their cheeks for an extended period of time. Chronic cheek biting is a condition associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder, affecting 750 out of 1 million people. By Statistics show that this behavior is more common in women than in men. Cause

There are many reasons why people bite their cheek. Cheek and lip biting can sometimes occur as a result of an accident, but it can also be related to a mental health condition.

Careless chewing or talking while eating can sometimes result in a person accidentally biting their cheek. Accidental bite can lead to injury and inflammation at the site of injury.

If a person regularly accidentally bites their cheek, this should be discussed with their dentist. This can occur in people with a crooked bite. People with temporomandibular joint disorders may also bite their cheeks frequently.

Chronic cheek bite is a more serious condition that requires appropriate medical attention. The current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) includes it among obsessive-compulsive and related disorders.

Chronic cheek bite often has a psychological cause. Researchers believe that repetitive self-harm-oriented behavior may have a genetic factor. If this is the case, then having an immediate family member, such as a parent or sibling, with repetitive self-harm behaviors may increase the risk of the condition.

Scientists are now trying to determine which genes may play a role in repetitive behavior, which could help doctors diagnose and treat this behavior in the future.

Many other factors can also contribute to a person developing chronic malocclusion. These include stress, as well as emotional and environmental factors.

Complications

When someone repeatedly bites their cheek, the area may appear thickened and paler than the surrounding tissue. Sometimes the affected area may be accompanied by purple spots. In more severe cases, dentists may notice tissue necrosis.

Patients who constantly bite their cheek may stop engaging in social activities to prevent other people from imitating their behavior. Some people may feel shame, isolation and low self-esteem due to their repetitive behavior, which can affect their overall well-being.

Treatment

If a person regularly bites their cheek, it is necessary to consult a dentist to ensure that their teeth or implants are in the correct position. If necessary, the dentist may advise the person to see an orthodontist, who can correct the misalignment to prevent regular cheek bites.

Sometimes the dentist will prescribe a mouthguard, which can prevent any further damage to the tissue and give it a chance to recover. Dentists recommend using a mouthguard until the tissue has completely healed.

People who constantly bite the lining of their cheeks should consult a doctor.

Your doctor may suggest one of the following types of therapy:

cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT);
dialectical behavior therapy.

Sometimes doctors may recommend medications in addition to psychotherapy.

There is no convincing evidence that special diets, electrical stimulation, hypnosis, massage, or other practices are effective in treating repetitive behavior.

When to see a doctor?

If a person regularly bites his cheek accidentally, he should see a dentist. The dentist will be able to determine the cause and help correct the bite.

Chronic cheek bite requires medical attention to eliminate the cause of this behavior. Some people for whom cheek biting is a self-destructive behavior are unaware of the problem and may not seek medical help.

Summary

Cheek biting can sometimes be a harmless accident or the result of a malocclusion, but many people experience chronic cheek biting. Chronic cheek biting is a self-harm-focused, repetitive behavior that is associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Doctors prescribe psychotherapy to help people treat chronic cheek bite. Sometimes people may also need to take medications.

Complications of chronic malocclusion are not only physical. Many people feel shame and low self-esteem as a result of these behaviors, which can lead them to avoid social and career interests.

Source: https://medicalinsider.ru/news/vse-chto-vam-nuzhno-znat-o-prikusyvanii-shheki/

Folk signs

If you bite your cheek, tongue or lip, do not rush to panic or get upset; most likely, this is a sign of upcoming changes in your life.

They say that biting your tongue during a long conversation means an imminent conflict. Therefore, it is worth slowing down the discussion before it leads to a quarrel. And a person who bites his lip is considered an ill-wisher and a talker. Isn't that you?

Biting your cheek means you will soon receive a passionate kiss. But if the bite happened during sleep, then your cherished dreams may not come true.

Whatever the reason for biting, you need to take remedial measures and be more careful with your teeth in the future.