Mouth Yeast Infection

Mouth yeast infection, known as oral thrush in medical terms is an infection which is caused by candida fungus. This infection has the capability to spread to other organs and structures of the body such as the skin, digestive track as well as the vagina in women. Although some amount of candida fungus yeast are present in the mouth of most people, they are kept in check by the other bacteria and microorganisms present in the body. Sometimes, due to reasons such as stress, a medication or an illness, this balance is not maintained in the body. This leads to an accelerated growth of the candida fungus, resulting in infection. This infection is also found in people who have a weak immune system such as elderly people and infants.

Here are the symptoms of oral thrush, followed by some medical and home treatment options.

Symptoms

The onset of the symptoms is very sudden. In some people this infection might become chronic and refuse to go away. Here are the commonly observed thrush symptoms.

Lesions appear in the mouth which are white in color and slightly raised from the skin surface. In some people, if the infection is severe, the legions might spread to other areas of the mouth such as the tongue, cheeks, gum, tonsils and throat.

The lesions in oral thrush might sometimes start bleeding in certain cases and spread to the esophagus, thus causing difficulty in swallowing food.

Some people may even contract a fever if the infection has spread to other organs of the body, i.e., skin, liver and lungs.

Treatment

For the treatment of mouth yeast infection, proper examination of the mouth by a dentist is done. It is followed by a microscopic examination of a tissue, taken from the lesions. Once the tests confirm an infection, the following treatment is usually followed.

The first treatment which is recommended by most doctors is antifungal medications which are available in the form of liquids, lozenges and tablets. Nystatin is a very popular antifungal medicine which is very widely used for thrush treatment. Antifungal medicines are recommended for about two weeks to cure this infection completely. As candida fungus infection could also be due to some other underlying disease, the doctor may recommend proper examination of the body for such illnesses and the relevant treatment for the same. For example, if the yeast infection is due to diabetes, the doctor will first of all recommend treatments to manage the sugar level in the body. This itself will prevent thrush from occurring in the future.

The doctors also prescribe certain self care methods to prevent such as infection in the future. People with a mouth yeast infection are usually asked to avoid using mouthwashes as well as mouth sprays. They are also prohibited from eating foods that are high in sugar content and foods which contain yeast such as breads, wine and bear.

A home remedy which is quite effective is consumption and application of plain yogurt. The good bacteria that are present in plain yogurt help in fighting off the yeast and hence, curing it in the process.

Another effective home remedy to cure oral thrush is eating garlic cloves. Garlic not only has antifungal properties, it lowers the blood pressure and helps in reducing the bad cholesterol. Alternately, you can buy garlic tablets that are available at herbal stores, if you are unable to eat raw garlic cloves because of the strong smell.

In order to prevent such an infection from occurring in the future, brushing twice a day and drinking lots of water everyday, so that the bacteria and yeast cannot build in the body and are flushed out regularly, is recommended.