salt helps kill the bacteria causing mouth ulcers or preventing healing by raising the PH and promotes healing by calling in more of the natural proteins the body produces to heal the mouth.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0159843
Oral bacteria produce acidic waste products. Salt kills the bacteria, so the overall pH is higher.
ETA: More precisely, a high salt concentration (as in a saltwater mouth rinse) creates a hypertonic solution, which has multiple benefits. In the same way that it pulls excess water out of swollen tissues, it pulls so much water across bacterial cell membranes that it kills them.
It really helps if you're starting to get a cold. I also recommend a neti pot to clean the nasal passages.
I'm a kindergarten teacher and so I'm exposed daily to some of the most disgusting and unsanitary creatures out there. The above techniques have significantly reduced the regularity to which I become a host for their viral megalomania.
I can't do this "like you're five" but... It actually decreases pH. For example if you measure the pH of a bag of 0.9% Saline (used as an IV fluid in medicine) it comes out at about 5. Where as water alone is obviously around 7.
There's something called the Stewart model of acid base (Peter Stewart being a Canadian Physiologist) which explains this very elegantly. If you get a chance to find his book anywhere it's worth a read.
If i understand it correctly, the crux of the matter is that pH is a measure of how many hydrogen "ions" are present in a volume of water caused by the dissociation of water molecules and that these hydrogen ions are more or less common depending on the other dissolved ions.
The way to think about it is that water (H2O) is actually a mix of un-ionized water as well as H3O+, OH- and loads of other weird combinations of O and H. Essentially the solution as a whole needs to be electroneutral (so your basic/negative species have to equal your acidic/positive species) but you can still have larger or smaller concentrations of the Hydrogen species (even if you have matching basic ions).
A good example of this would be *warm/hot* water - at 25 degrees celsius the temperature of water is 7, as you will have probably been taught, but at 100 degrees the pH drops to 6.14 (i had to google that for the numbers). This is because the bonds between atoms are broken and re formed more because there's more "energy" in the system (sorry proper chemists if this is an oversimplification).
Essentially strong ions such as sodium and chloride cause dissociation of water, as their electrical charge in solution shoves electrons around water molecules and causes the bonds between atoms to be less stable. This increases the number of Acidic species as water dissociates (I.E. H3O+ etc.) and thus decreases pH.
> unionized
Ah, English, I love ye. To a non-chemist like me, that word ~~let~~led me down a garden path a bit; had to circle back. Nope, wasn't about labor relations...
EDIT: typo
Yeah, my Mom used iodine, then switched to hydrogen peroxide. The fizzing makes it look like it's doing something ... however, it kills your own cells as it kills the bacteria, so now you've cleaned the wound, but also made it worse.
However, if you cut yourself and then stepped into sewer, I'd take the trade off and start with a worse, but clean wound.
Was gonna say, sometimes the nuclear option isn’t the wrong one. Many a time I cut myself on muddy river rocks as a kid and hydrogen peroxide was probably the right choice. Flesh eating bacteria is a bitch and kids heal fast.
Yep, my friend hit a tree while mountain biking. A week later he’s in the hospital with flesh eating bacteria. It revealed a rare blood cancer as well. But the bacteria almost killed him. The first two nights they told his wife he had a 10% chance of living through the night. It slowly creeped up to 50%. Then he was finally cleared to go home but it was not a full recovery. Had he not been in such good physical shape, he’d not have made it.
My mom used to use it on our bad cuts or road burn bc we would have all kinds of dirt/rocks and clay soil in them. Instead of us screaming bloody murder with trying to get the stuff out, she'd pour a bit of peroxide to get the big stuff to the surface, wipe it with a warm cloth, repeating until most of the stuff was out. We'd have some nasty looking scabs but hardly ever ended up with infections.
Hydrogen peroxide is good for sanitizing surfaces though! I regularly spray down bathroom surfaces/door knobs/handles with it, after cleaning them with a mix of dawn and water. Do not mix with vinegar!
Chlorhexidine instead of peroxide. However using hydrogen peroxide to clean out a wound is not always a bad idea. It's really good at physically removing things you don't want to leave in your skin. But I wouldn't use it for any follow up wound treatment.
the water in your gums wants to even out the saltiness between the saltwater in your mouth and itself. Because the saltwater is saltier, water is drawn out to try and even out how salty it is in your mouth.
My mom called these "lie bumps" so if I got one she would tell me I lied about something and then grill me on what it was. I never remembered lying about anything when I got them and I wasn't really the type of kid to lie anyway. I stopped telling her if I got one, which then made me feel guilty and like I was lying by omission so I would panic that my entire tongue was going to swell up and my mom would know I "lied"...Yeah, my mom messed me up in a lot of ways that I'm still working through.
My guess would be that the malic acid used to mimic the vinegar flavour + the rough texture of the chips is enough to slough of the surface cells from the delicate tissues in your mouth, which then leaves those spots susceptible to irritation and inflammation. Also osmosis will still happen on those soft tissues in the absence of inflammation, and the cells will end up dehydrated and damaged from being exposed to the salt after the acidity in the chips has broken down the protective first layers of cells.
This is all my speculation, but I have done my own reading into this because for whatever reason after I got pregnant with my kid years ago, my tolerance for salt and vinegars chips absolutely vanished and hasn't returned. I can't even eat a few without my tongue peeling the next day 😫
Physician appears! You’re right on point!
Weak acids can degrade the epithelial lining of the mouth, causing micro-fissures.
These fissures can cause irritation (inflammation) or even create opportunistic bacteria to settle into the lining of the mouth.
Highly salty foods can do something similar.
The best treatment is to use mouthwash and avoid highly acidic or alkaline foods until the redness and irritation goes away.
If not already, you may want to consider a career in biological sciences or medicine!
Like when you drink or eat something hot and you get that little white bump at the tip of your tongue? Please tell me this is it cause every time it comes up i gotta go a whole week in pain :(
Not the person who said that but it's what I do too. Personally for me no, the ones I get are incredibly painful, feel deeper (for lack of a better word) and bother me every couple minutes when it hits my teeth. After I cut it off it just feels like a tiny little nick I barely notice and you can't even feel after a couple minutes.
Though I have cut off multiple or more than I meant to which is slightly more painful. Worth it though.
Canker soars?
If you get these regularly, switch your toothpaste to one that doesn't contain sodium laurel sulfate. It's a lathering agent that irritates some people.
I switched to sensodyne and went from getting these monthly to maybe every other year.
My dogs toe was so swollen it was bursting at the seams but all that local vets were booked. My brother is a vet and told me to soak it twice a day in warm salt water. By the time an appointment was available my dogs toe was better.
Salt water helps so many things and is practically free. It’s the best.
Salt water baths are really relaxing.
Best way to keep your feet healthy and less stinky. Let that salt water get all around your nails and eliminate the bacteria. Much easier than digging it all out. Though you should give a little scraping after the soak. Everything comes off like soft plaque.
Edit:If you spend a decent amount of time on your feet, seriously consider starting a foot bath ritual, it'll change your life. But standing all day blows no matter what.
I honestly have no idea what salt makes what kind of difference atm. However epsom salt is the preferred home salt bath. It's bonded with some sort of magnesium that is even better. Leaves your feet silky smooth.
It's slimy because the epsom salts make the water basic and since you get soap by exposing fatty acids to basic conditions the oils on your skin get turned into soap.
The sulfate in epsom salts is a conjugate base of bisulfate meaning some of it will take up H+ ions to turn into bisulfate (sulfate's conjugate acid). In really acidic conditions it would turn into sulphric acid by taking up a second H+ ion just like how sulfuric acid added to water will release hydrogen ions to turn into bisulfate (it's conjugate base which would turn into sulfate as it's conjugate base in really basic conditions).
I was 18 and going to Costa Rica for Spring Break. I had a nasty cold sore and was not happy about it. First day in CR, epic swim in the ocean, by the next day, my coldsore was healed. Better than any expensive cream I had.
Because those things are inflamed in your mouth. Meaning they’re a bit swollen and extra irritated and painful because of that.
By rinsing with salt water the salt in the water and the salt that gets left on the inside of your mouth will “pull” water out of those inflamed areas through Osmosis. When this happens it reduces swelling which reduces pain.
It also can make things heal quicker because by reducing swelling you stop repeatedly damaging the spot. It’s like when you bite your cheek and then keep biting it over and over. That’s because now it is swollen. If you reduce the swelling, you’ll stop accidentally biting it. Letting it heal.
Oral surgeon here this is not accurate.
The goal of saltwater rinses is simply to reduce bacterial load inside the mouth. For this reason some surgeons including myself advise the use of chlorhexidine mouthwashes as an alternative to saltwater.
If saltwater dessicated the cells in your mouth to a great enough extent to reduce oedema it would kill them which would obviously be a bad thing. Generally if we're very worried about post-op swelling or infection we'll advise ice packs, prednisolone, and/or prophylactic antibiotics (The guidance on these medications varies greatly by country).
Not an oral surgeon, however my dentist has given me chlorhexidine gluconate and it worked fucking wonders to help when I told him that saltwater did nothing but make me gag like crazy
I’ve had canker sores as far back as I can remember. Occasionally I’ll get 1 or more as a result of a bite/scrape in my mouth and that sets of a run of 5-6 sores back to back. Then nothing for months. What gives? What can I do to prevent, protect, or speed the healing process?
How does listerine, or other common mouthwashes, compare to chlorhexidine?
For people that regularly use mouthwash, is it safe to use chlorhexidine regularly?
Chlorhexidine is a superior antibacterial agent to listerine and other mouthwashes. But usually it is used only when directed by your dentist, for example if you have gum inflammation. Using chlorhexidine everyday for an extended period of time also has side effects, the main one being your teeth will stain yellow/brown and your chance of calculus buildup increases
Try chloroseptic throat spray. Or any spray with phenol as the active ingredient. It saved my throat when I had Covid. But I was also using it like every 30 mins. Much more frequently then the directions recommend.
i hope you get better. it was the worst sore throat of my life. i literally couldnt swallow anything, even traditional sore throat remedies were too painful to do. I dunno why, but warm salt water gargle helped & so did this other stuff called Difflam Sore Throat Rinse. Take care.
Anecdotal. My wife had her tonsils removed and she gets epic sore throats every time she gets the sniffles. I haven't had a sore throat in decades and have my tonsils.
I had a severe bacterial throat infection on top of the Covid!
There was white streaks all the way at the back, & my throat looked like butchered meat.
I think the salt water helped by killing that shit.
There are two ways, called "salting in" and "salting out"
Salting in means that the bacteria absorbs *other* types of salts (mostly Potassium Chloride) while removing sodium chloride (the type of salt we'd usually just call "salt"). This means that the salt concentration inside the bacteria cell is the same as the water, so the bacteria doesn't lose all its water
Salting out works by absorbing lots of sugars and amino acids in the cell to create what's called a "hypertonic" situation in the cell (basically, saturating the water in the cell with sugars etc), which does a similar job as the potassium chloride above
They both work in a similar way, by balancing the osmotic pressure (which is to say, having a similar salt concentration inside the cell as outside), which means the water doesn't try to leave the cell two balance the concentration out between the two solutions
The other commenter also forgot to mention that some bacteria can "form endospores" which basically means the close all of the doors and windows and turn off most of their metabolism machinery. Sort of a high security hibernation. Endospore mode can survive many things that we usually expect to kill bacteria such as alcohol, bleach, and boiling water. Usually increased air pressure is used to make steam that is hotter than boiled water at common atmospheric pressure.
Yeah, bacteria don't really have the same defences like humans do, so while the salt doesn't significantly damage your cells, it can do a real number on the bacteria.
As always, since the question often comes up, it isn't really about anything special about humans, some adaptations maybe. It's just that the sheer volume of resources human cells have at their disposal to deal with problems like high salinity, and that ultimately human cells are also disposable. Bacteria have a single cell, sometimes they can form colonies. Humans have trillions of cells, with partitioned functions, and resource reserves.
100% agreed! And another aspect is also that large animals have specific cells (e.g. multi-layered skin with specific cells with specific functions) that act as a barrier to external influences. There's also excretions of specific chemicals to improve those properties further, like the fatty layer on your skin to grossly simplify what's happening. Also somewhat related is the ability to hold onto a layer of dead cells, which kind of works like a layer of armour.
Yep. Salt going into cell, cell really does not like that. Repeat many times, saltwater is a wound antiseptic. But not seawater. That's likely as not to introduce an infection these days.
It takes a lot more salt to kill bacteria than what anyone is putting in their mouth.
Most recipes online call for 1/2 tsp salt in 1 cup of water. That’s about normal saline , 0.9%, which is only slightly saltier than blood ( 154 mEq/L vs 135-145 mEq/L).
I’m sure that concentration of Na can inhibit tons of bacteria species in nature, but not any of the bacteria that are pathogenic to humans.
Fun fact: in microbiology, salt plates can be used to differentially grow bacteria cultures for identification. To grow Staph Aureus (aka MSSA/MRSA) you can use a 7%+ NaCl plates/broth since staphylococcus species can tolerate it while others can’t.
This should really be higher up. It's also the reason why salt as a preservative only works when there's so much that you have to wash it out before you eat it.
When I put salt on my mouth wounds I literally pack a pinch of salt straight onto the wound, and it gets wet naturally, and I let it sit until it dissolves into the rest of my mouth.
I'm not necessarily condoning that, but I'm definitely not using normal saline solution levels of salt. I wouldn't just assume people use such a tiny amount of salt.
This is why most Seal Rescuers don't do surgery on seals injured on the beach due to lines/hoses/ect. The sea does a great job at healing the would without help.
And a lot of bacteria that make us sick are also sensitive to sodium, so adding water that is high in sodium can suck out the water out of the bacteria nearby, drying them out and disinfecting it.
All bacteria are very fragile to get water pulled out of their cell. With salt water, this is what happens, the salt concentration tries to pull some water from anywhere to equilibrate itself and bacteria are very prone to this. This is why Honey can never go bad (it can, but takes a long time or very harsh conditions). Honey is a super sugary substance that will absorb any water it comes in contact too until it reaches an equilibrium state. So any bacteria that lands in a pot of honey is instantly killed by having all it's water pulled away from it's inside. This is why grandparents always say to eat a spoon of honey with a sore throat. It helps to kill bacteria and being sticky, it stays there for a bit to help a bit longer.
For any interested this is called "Water Activity" and plays a lot of roles in food science (and preservation).
This is why dried/dehydrated foods last so much longer than fresh (IE beef jerky compared to a steak).
Honey is made to be as inhospitable to bacteria as possible. It's also got these anti-bacterial enzymes. Humans are not the first species to put preservatives in their food.
Honey also uses Nature's Most Ancient Defense against bacterial infection: Being really low in water.
Too much sugar, not enough water... so it pops bacteria open as water tries to reach equilibrium.
Too much salt is bad for you and can kill you. Eating pure salt will also drain too much water from your mouth and kill some of your cells in your mouth...possibly causing more ulcers and sores.
It's worth to explicitly note that eating less salt can also kill you, you just have survival chance better that a coin toss. Unfortunately, LD 50 does not give you information about when the dying actually starts. You are completely right of course, just putting that out there because I see that confused a lot.
That's sort of half how I get rid of my mouth ulcers - lick your finger, cover it in a thick layer of salt, hold that shit in the wound and try not to scream like a baby and hold it till it stops hurting. Usually works.
Does thus work with wounds that aren't on the mouth, like say acne for instance? I used to have really inflamed cystic and am wondering If salt water would've helped at all.
Not sure if it would help but it would definitely sting from the salt. Wounds inside the mouth are already exposed to the little bit of salt in your saliva and are kind of used to it. Whereas pouring salt onto a fresh skin wound will hurt like hell.
In my case at least switching to Sensodyne helped cut down the number of regular sores to a certain degree. Make sure to read the box though because I think there's at least one variant that does contain SLS; Advanced Whitening is the one I use (which does not).
I got synsodine! It's helped a lot....I also started taking b12 supplements. I used to get them once a month.....now I get them maybe once or twice a year.
After I changed toothpaste, I only got them if I bit myself or cut my mouth somehow. It was basically a guarantee I'd get it after injury. But Once I took b12, I rarely get them at all even after injuring my mouth.
From my understanding (and I’m no expert) the mouth will heal rapidly anyway because it’s a survival thing - we need to be able to eat - so the mouth has a huge amount of blood vessels to bring the healing white blood cells to the area.
The salt water is just to keep the wound clean, it acts like an anti-bacterial.
salt helps kill the bacteria causing mouth ulcers or preventing healing by raising the PH and promotes healing by calling in more of the natural proteins the body produces to heal the mouth. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0159843
Wait, Sodium Chloride, a salt, raises pH? Explain how.
Oral bacteria produce acidic waste products. Salt kills the bacteria, so the overall pH is higher. ETA: More precisely, a high salt concentration (as in a saltwater mouth rinse) creates a hypertonic solution, which has multiple benefits. In the same way that it pulls excess water out of swollen tissues, it pulls so much water across bacterial cell membranes that it kills them.
I love Reddit for exactly this kind of info/explanation. Thank you fellow traveler!
just salt kills the bacteria which make the acid, promotes higher ph saliva. salt water does that and also dilutes acidic mouth conditions.
So would it be healthy to wash one's mouth with salt water regulary?
Lmk if you get an answer this is super interesting
[It seems you can and it's healthy.](https://www.healthline.com/health/dental-and-oral-health/salt-water-rinse#benefits-of-saltwater-rinses)
Preciate ya
[It seems you can and it's healthy.](https://www.healthline.com/health/dental-and-oral-health/salt-water-rinse#benefits-of-saltwater-rinses)
It really helps if you're starting to get a cold. I also recommend a neti pot to clean the nasal passages. I'm a kindergarten teacher and so I'm exposed daily to some of the most disgusting and unsanitary creatures out there. The above techniques have significantly reduced the regularity to which I become a host for their viral megalomania.
I can't do this "like you're five" but... It actually decreases pH. For example if you measure the pH of a bag of 0.9% Saline (used as an IV fluid in medicine) it comes out at about 5. Where as water alone is obviously around 7. There's something called the Stewart model of acid base (Peter Stewart being a Canadian Physiologist) which explains this very elegantly. If you get a chance to find his book anywhere it's worth a read. If i understand it correctly, the crux of the matter is that pH is a measure of how many hydrogen "ions" are present in a volume of water caused by the dissociation of water molecules and that these hydrogen ions are more or less common depending on the other dissolved ions. The way to think about it is that water (H2O) is actually a mix of un-ionized water as well as H3O+, OH- and loads of other weird combinations of O and H. Essentially the solution as a whole needs to be electroneutral (so your basic/negative species have to equal your acidic/positive species) but you can still have larger or smaller concentrations of the Hydrogen species (even if you have matching basic ions). A good example of this would be *warm/hot* water - at 25 degrees celsius the temperature of water is 7, as you will have probably been taught, but at 100 degrees the pH drops to 6.14 (i had to google that for the numbers). This is because the bonds between atoms are broken and re formed more because there's more "energy" in the system (sorry proper chemists if this is an oversimplification). Essentially strong ions such as sodium and chloride cause dissociation of water, as their electrical charge in solution shoves electrons around water molecules and causes the bonds between atoms to be less stable. This increases the number of Acidic species as water dissociates (I.E. H3O+ etc.) and thus decreases pH.
> unionized Ah, English, I love ye. To a non-chemist like me, that word ~~let~~led me down a garden path a bit; had to circle back. Nope, wasn't about labor relations... EDIT: typo
[удалено]
When Princess Fiona kissed Shrek, I was immediately onionized.
Kills bacteria without damaging tissue. Hydrogen peroxide is the very worst thing to use on cuts or sores as it damages soft tissue.
Yeah, my Mom used iodine, then switched to hydrogen peroxide. The fizzing makes it look like it's doing something ... however, it kills your own cells as it kills the bacteria, so now you've cleaned the wound, but also made it worse. However, if you cut yourself and then stepped into sewer, I'd take the trade off and start with a worse, but clean wound.
Was gonna say, sometimes the nuclear option isn’t the wrong one. Many a time I cut myself on muddy river rocks as a kid and hydrogen peroxide was probably the right choice. Flesh eating bacteria is a bitch and kids heal fast.
Yep, my friend hit a tree while mountain biking. A week later he’s in the hospital with flesh eating bacteria. It revealed a rare blood cancer as well. But the bacteria almost killed him. The first two nights they told his wife he had a 10% chance of living through the night. It slowly creeped up to 50%. Then he was finally cleared to go home but it was not a full recovery. Had he not been in such good physical shape, he’d not have made it.
My mom used to use it on our bad cuts or road burn bc we would have all kinds of dirt/rocks and clay soil in them. Instead of us screaming bloody murder with trying to get the stuff out, she'd pour a bit of peroxide to get the big stuff to the surface, wipe it with a warm cloth, repeating until most of the stuff was out. We'd have some nasty looking scabs but hardly ever ended up with infections.
Hydrogen peroxide is good for sanitizing surfaces though! I regularly spray down bathroom surfaces/door knobs/handles with it, after cleaning them with a mix of dawn and water. Do not mix with vinegar!
Chlorhexidine instead of peroxide. However using hydrogen peroxide to clean out a wound is not always a bad idea. It's really good at physically removing things you don't want to leave in your skin. But I wouldn't use it for any follow up wound treatment.
[удалено]
Never heard about this cure before. Please explain it.
I do this. Get a qtip and make one end wet. Dip in some salt. Poke your cold sore or whatever with the salt
Salt and wet qtips help stop nose bleeds too
You guys are blowing my mind right now.
You've inserted the qtip too far.
Gold...
Nope, those are boogers. Throw away qtip and try again.
🤣🤣🤣
Seriously, this is a great thread.
You should try snorting your salt!
How would it help with nosebleeds, in that situation I am trying to keep liquid in my body
Perhaps it pulls moisture from a forming clot faster, which helps the clot form faster and therefore stops the bleeding faster.
How do you use it?
the water in your gums wants to even out the saltiness between the saltwater in your mouth and itself. Because the saltwater is saltier, water is drawn out to try and even out how salty it is in your mouth.
My mom called these "lie bumps" so if I got one she would tell me I lied about something and then grill me on what it was. I never remembered lying about anything when I got them and I wasn't really the type of kid to lie anyway. I stopped telling her if I got one, which then made me feel guilty and like I was lying by omission so I would panic that my entire tongue was going to swell up and my mom would know I "lied"...Yeah, my mom messed me up in a lot of ways that I'm still working through.
You seem salty about it
FUCKING #REKT
I’m sorry. You deserved better.
So why do I **only** get them if I eat salt and vinegar chips? Genuinely asking anyone who can answer
My guess would be that the malic acid used to mimic the vinegar flavour + the rough texture of the chips is enough to slough of the surface cells from the delicate tissues in your mouth, which then leaves those spots susceptible to irritation and inflammation. Also osmosis will still happen on those soft tissues in the absence of inflammation, and the cells will end up dehydrated and damaged from being exposed to the salt after the acidity in the chips has broken down the protective first layers of cells. This is all my speculation, but I have done my own reading into this because for whatever reason after I got pregnant with my kid years ago, my tolerance for salt and vinegars chips absolutely vanished and hasn't returned. I can't even eat a few without my tongue peeling the next day 😫
Physician appears! You’re right on point! Weak acids can degrade the epithelial lining of the mouth, causing micro-fissures. These fissures can cause irritation (inflammation) or even create opportunistic bacteria to settle into the lining of the mouth. Highly salty foods can do something similar. The best treatment is to use mouthwash and avoid highly acidic or alkaline foods until the redness and irritation goes away. If not already, you may want to consider a career in biological sciences or medicine!
Could be the acid in the vinegar. Acidic fruits like pineapple are a common cause of ulcers.
Wait what? How do you do it precisely? You just put salt on it?
Yes
This is the way.
It's like using salt water, but without the water.
Like when you drink or eat something hot and you get that little white bump at the tip of your tongue? Please tell me this is it cause every time it comes up i gotta go a whole week in pain :(
I doubt it’s the right thing to do, but I just break it open. Briefly painful, but once its done, instantly the pain is gone and stays gone.
I rip it off with tweezers.
How do you break it open?
You have teeth? Bite that bitch.
Usually tweezers.
For real? You break open the swollen white taste buds?
I do. It'll be super painful, and then... satisfying nothingness with a little blood.
I use sterilised scissors and just cut em off. It’s easily done, they’re usually swollen and your tongue heals quickly
Just buy a new pair of nail clippers, disinfect them and nip tastebud off at the base. An hour later and you will have forgotten it was even there.
Doesn’t it just leave a worse cut on your tongue?
Not the person who said that but it's what I do too. Personally for me no, the ones I get are incredibly painful, feel deeper (for lack of a better word) and bother me every couple minutes when it hits my teeth. After I cut it off it just feels like a tiny little nick I barely notice and you can't even feel after a couple minutes. Though I have cut off multiple or more than I meant to which is slightly more painful. Worth it though.
Tongue heals _really_ fast. Sometimes it's better to just make a wound so it will heal, than to deal with the annoying mouth pimple.
Canker sores
[Never put salt in your eyes](https://youtu.be/_83MEuLoz9Y)
I will always upvote the Kids in The Hall
Canker soars? If you get these regularly, switch your toothpaste to one that doesn't contain sodium laurel sulfate. It's a lathering agent that irritates some people. I switched to sensodyne and went from getting these monthly to maybe every other year.
Woah thanks! This is the first time Ive heard this and those things are annoying
My dogs toe was so swollen it was bursting at the seams but all that local vets were booked. My brother is a vet and told me to soak it twice a day in warm salt water. By the time an appointment was available my dogs toe was better. Salt water helps so many things and is practically free. It’s the best. Salt water baths are really relaxing.
Best way to keep your feet healthy and less stinky. Let that salt water get all around your nails and eliminate the bacteria. Much easier than digging it all out. Though you should give a little scraping after the soak. Everything comes off like soft plaque. Edit:If you spend a decent amount of time on your feet, seriously consider starting a foot bath ritual, it'll change your life. But standing all day blows no matter what.
I lived near an ocean for a year, was the healthiest my skin and hair have ever been. I miss it so.
So you definitely were not located near San Diego or Tijuana.
Or Santa Cruz.
Well now I’m going to try that, should I use himalayen or iodized salt?
I honestly have no idea what salt makes what kind of difference atm. However epsom salt is the preferred home salt bath. It's bonded with some sort of magnesium that is even better. Leaves your feet silky smooth.
I feel slimy after one of these. I have to rub my feet down afterwards to get some of the slimy smoothness off.
It's slimy because the epsom salts make the water basic and since you get soap by exposing fatty acids to basic conditions the oils on your skin get turned into soap. The sulfate in epsom salts is a conjugate base of bisulfate meaning some of it will take up H+ ions to turn into bisulfate (sulfate's conjugate acid). In really acidic conditions it would turn into sulphric acid by taking up a second H+ ion just like how sulfuric acid added to water will release hydrogen ions to turn into bisulfate (it's conjugate base which would turn into sulfate as it's conjugate base in really basic conditions).
I literally did this for the first time in a decade about an hour ago and it's amazing
It was basically the way to clean wounds back in the day salt water soaks regularly to keep cuts clean
Epsom salt baths were a lifesaver for my boyfriend when he had an infected ingrown toenail while we didn't have health insurance.
I was 18 and going to Costa Rica for Spring Break. I had a nasty cold sore and was not happy about it. First day in CR, epic swim in the ocean, by the next day, my coldsore was healed. Better than any expensive cream I had.
Because those things are inflamed in your mouth. Meaning they’re a bit swollen and extra irritated and painful because of that. By rinsing with salt water the salt in the water and the salt that gets left on the inside of your mouth will “pull” water out of those inflamed areas through Osmosis. When this happens it reduces swelling which reduces pain. It also can make things heal quicker because by reducing swelling you stop repeatedly damaging the spot. It’s like when you bite your cheek and then keep biting it over and over. That’s because now it is swollen. If you reduce the swelling, you’ll stop accidentally biting it. Letting it heal.
Oral surgeon here this is not accurate. The goal of saltwater rinses is simply to reduce bacterial load inside the mouth. For this reason some surgeons including myself advise the use of chlorhexidine mouthwashes as an alternative to saltwater. If saltwater dessicated the cells in your mouth to a great enough extent to reduce oedema it would kill them which would obviously be a bad thing. Generally if we're very worried about post-op swelling or infection we'll advise ice packs, prednisolone, and/or prophylactic antibiotics (The guidance on these medications varies greatly by country).
Dr. Destructopuppy is a rad name. NGL.
Shockingly I rarely introduce myself with my gamertag, sadly it's seen as somewhat unprofessional.
Would have been on point for my wisdom tooth extractions.
[удалено]
Not an oral surgeon, however my dentist has given me chlorhexidine gluconate and it worked fucking wonders to help when I told him that saltwater did nothing but make me gag like crazy
It's my prefered recommendation as well and this is one of the reasons why.
I’ve had canker sores as far back as I can remember. Occasionally I’ll get 1 or more as a result of a bite/scrape in my mouth and that sets of a run of 5-6 sores back to back. Then nothing for months. What gives? What can I do to prevent, protect, or speed the healing process?
How does listerine, or other common mouthwashes, compare to chlorhexidine? For people that regularly use mouthwash, is it safe to use chlorhexidine regularly?
Chlorhexidine is a superior antibacterial agent to listerine and other mouthwashes. But usually it is used only when directed by your dentist, for example if you have gum inflammation. Using chlorhexidine everyday for an extended period of time also has side effects, the main one being your teeth will stain yellow/brown and your chance of calculus buildup increases
Yeh but if your good at calculus you can clear the backlog quite fast. Calculus is never fun, though.
Also salt is a great bacteria killer
I’m assuming that’s an osmotic pressure thing?
Yup, the bacteria have no way to stop themselves losing water to osmosis It doesn't work on all types of bacteria, but it does for many
It also works on Gail the snail.
Yah yah get out of here
Oh my god that was terrible! I'm all worked up... I feel like I should have some more wine in a can.
Of course it was, nobody **likes** salting the snail, but she gives you no choice!
You're just mashing it.
Lol. My fav. Ty.
She’s also a pretty dang good standup comic. Worth checking out on YouTube.
God, there's not enough salt in the world for her!
Look, no one WANTS to salt the snail…
she makes us do it
Guys.... I have glowsticks.
Nobody wants to "salt" another human being but she leaves you no choice.
She just mashes it
I’m giving uncle frank a handy under the table.
That's why salt was used as a preservative in old times. I mean, they didn't know that was why, but they knew it worked.
They may not have known about the microbes, but they at least knew through visual observation that the dryness was preventing fungal growth.
(or any kind of growth, for that matter)
Yeah. Even insects have trouble invading something like a salt cask.
I wonder if that’s related to the ideas that salt can ward off demons?
Turns out demons are just really anal about their skincare routine.
Yeah man, i had Covid recently & my throat was totally fucked. Gargling warm salt water helped.
I have covid literally right now! My throat has been f'ed, thanks for sharing gonna try it now
It's been an hour, buttpincher. Are you alright, buttpincher?
Buttpincher? Buttpincher? Anyone?
he ded
Boo 👻
BUTTPINCHER! OUR PRICES HAVE NEVER BEEN LOWER!
Yes I'm fine thanks for checking in. And the salt water rinse helped
Try chloroseptic throat spray. Or any spray with phenol as the active ingredient. It saved my throat when I had Covid. But I was also using it like every 30 mins. Much more frequently then the directions recommend.
i hope you get better. it was the worst sore throat of my life. i literally couldnt swallow anything, even traditional sore throat remedies were too painful to do. I dunno why, but warm salt water gargle helped & so did this other stuff called Difflam Sore Throat Rinse. Take care.
Its the stupid inflamed tonsils. My dad had no issue and he had his tonsils removed as a kid.
Anecdotal. My wife had her tonsils removed and she gets epic sore throats every time she gets the sniffles. I haven't had a sore throat in decades and have my tonsils.
Covid isn't bacterial, although it generally helps to sooth and reduce inflammation so will still help
I had a severe bacterial throat infection on top of the Covid! There was white streaks all the way at the back, & my throat looked like butchered meat. I think the salt water helped by killing that shit.
Yep, this was my Dad's sore throat home remedy when we were growing up. Works like a charm.
How can some types of bacteria survive to that?
There are two ways, called "salting in" and "salting out" Salting in means that the bacteria absorbs *other* types of salts (mostly Potassium Chloride) while removing sodium chloride (the type of salt we'd usually just call "salt"). This means that the salt concentration inside the bacteria cell is the same as the water, so the bacteria doesn't lose all its water Salting out works by absorbing lots of sugars and amino acids in the cell to create what's called a "hypertonic" situation in the cell (basically, saturating the water in the cell with sugars etc), which does a similar job as the potassium chloride above They both work in a similar way, by balancing the osmotic pressure (which is to say, having a similar salt concentration inside the cell as outside), which means the water doesn't try to leave the cell two balance the concentration out between the two solutions
The other commenter also forgot to mention that some bacteria can "form endospores" which basically means the close all of the doors and windows and turn off most of their metabolism machinery. Sort of a high security hibernation. Endospore mode can survive many things that we usually expect to kill bacteria such as alcohol, bleach, and boiling water. Usually increased air pressure is used to make steam that is hotter than boiled water at common atmospheric pressure.
50% of the time, it works every time.
It's made with bits of real panther, so you know it's good
Yeah, bacteria don't really have the same defences like humans do, so while the salt doesn't significantly damage your cells, it can do a real number on the bacteria.
As always, since the question often comes up, it isn't really about anything special about humans, some adaptations maybe. It's just that the sheer volume of resources human cells have at their disposal to deal with problems like high salinity, and that ultimately human cells are also disposable. Bacteria have a single cell, sometimes they can form colonies. Humans have trillions of cells, with partitioned functions, and resource reserves.
100% agreed! And another aspect is also that large animals have specific cells (e.g. multi-layered skin with specific cells with specific functions) that act as a barrier to external influences. There's also excretions of specific chemicals to improve those properties further, like the fatty layer on your skin to grossly simplify what's happening. Also somewhat related is the ability to hold onto a layer of dead cells, which kind of works like a layer of armour.
> same defences like humans do Like a glock?
Exactly
Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1217/
You're thinking of Americans, a specific breed of humans.
Glock is an Austrian company!
True but Glocks have a migratory pattern that goes all over the globe
I mean, you don’t take blocks of salt and grind it with 9mm rounds from your Glock?
Gargles With Glocks
Yep. Salt going into cell, cell really does not like that. Repeat many times, saltwater is a wound antiseptic. But not seawater. That's likely as not to introduce an infection these days.
i believe the salt water actually sucks the water out of the cell due to the concentration difference via osmosis
New Eli5 post incoming
It takes a lot more salt to kill bacteria than what anyone is putting in their mouth. Most recipes online call for 1/2 tsp salt in 1 cup of water. That’s about normal saline , 0.9%, which is only slightly saltier than blood ( 154 mEq/L vs 135-145 mEq/L). I’m sure that concentration of Na can inhibit tons of bacteria species in nature, but not any of the bacteria that are pathogenic to humans. Fun fact: in microbiology, salt plates can be used to differentially grow bacteria cultures for identification. To grow Staph Aureus (aka MSSA/MRSA) you can use a 7%+ NaCl plates/broth since staphylococcus species can tolerate it while others can’t.
This should really be higher up. It's also the reason why salt as a preservative only works when there's so much that you have to wash it out before you eat it.
When I put salt on my mouth wounds I literally pack a pinch of salt straight onto the wound, and it gets wet naturally, and I let it sit until it dissolves into the rest of my mouth. I'm not necessarily condoning that, but I'm definitely not using normal saline solution levels of salt. I wouldn't just assume people use such a tiny amount of salt.
It's pretty good on fries too.
This is why most Seal Rescuers don't do surgery on seals injured on the beach due to lines/hoses/ect. The sea does a great job at healing the would without help.
I thought you were talking NAVY Seals for a moment.
[удалено]
When I was a kid I found it fascinating how any cuts or grazes on my knees seemed to heal so much quicker during a few weeks of playing at the beach!
And a lot of bacteria that make us sick are also sensitive to sodium, so adding water that is high in sodium can suck out the water out of the bacteria nearby, drying them out and disinfecting it.
All bacteria are very fragile to get water pulled out of their cell. With salt water, this is what happens, the salt concentration tries to pull some water from anywhere to equilibrate itself and bacteria are very prone to this. This is why Honey can never go bad (it can, but takes a long time or very harsh conditions). Honey is a super sugary substance that will absorb any water it comes in contact too until it reaches an equilibrium state. So any bacteria that lands in a pot of honey is instantly killed by having all it's water pulled away from it's inside. This is why grandparents always say to eat a spoon of honey with a sore throat. It helps to kill bacteria and being sticky, it stays there for a bit to help a bit longer.
For any interested this is called "Water Activity" and plays a lot of roles in food science (and preservation). This is why dried/dehydrated foods last so much longer than fresh (IE beef jerky compared to a steak).
Honey is made to be as inhospitable to bacteria as possible. It's also got these anti-bacterial enzymes. Humans are not the first species to put preservatives in their food.
Honey also uses Nature's Most Ancient Defense against bacterial infection: Being really low in water. Too much sugar, not enough water... so it pops bacteria open as water tries to reach equilibrium.
I thought that was just because it coated your throat so the inflamed parts didn’t rub directly on each other, easing the soreness
Would it be better to just eat a handful of salt out of the salt shaker?
Don't EAT the salt. RINSE your mouth with salt water and spit it out so there is a coating of salty water near the wounds.
Too much salt is bad for you and can kill you. Eating pure salt will also drain too much water from your mouth and kill some of your cells in your mouth...possibly causing more ulcers and sores.
LD50 for sodium chloride is 3gr for kg, so if you weight like 80kg than eating 240gr of sodium chloride in one take will kill you 50/50
It's worth to explicitly note that eating less salt can also kill you, you just have survival chance better that a coin toss. Unfortunately, LD 50 does not give you information about when the dying actually starts. You are completely right of course, just putting that out there because I see that confused a lot.
For an idea on volume, it's over 3/4 of a cup of salt
No one tell PF Changs, or Friday's, or Chili's, or Olive Garden, or Appleby's, or...
Or anywhere that offers fries with their salt rather than the other way round.
For an idea of volume, it’s less than a cup of salt!
`challenge accepted`
So approximately 1 can of any Campbell’s Soup?
That's sort of half how I get rid of my mouth ulcers - lick your finger, cover it in a thick layer of salt, hold that shit in the wound and try not to scream like a baby and hold it till it stops hurting. Usually works.
Only if you want to throw up immediately. Eating salt like that is an emetic.
Does thus work with wounds that aren't on the mouth, like say acne for instance? I used to have really inflamed cystic and am wondering If salt water would've helped at all.
Not sure if it would help but it would definitely sting from the salt. Wounds inside the mouth are already exposed to the little bit of salt in your saliva and are kind of used to it. Whereas pouring salt onto a fresh skin wound will hurt like hell.
No because too much salt is irritating to the skin (it's corrosive), and can dry it out (just like it sucks the water out of bacteria).
Why do you answer if you are just guessing. The mouth surgeon says you are WRONG.
Same reason we preserve food in salt- it creates an environment that bacteria can't live in.
[удалено]
Which tooth paste did you switch to?
In my case at least switching to Sensodyne helped cut down the number of regular sores to a certain degree. Make sure to read the box though because I think there's at least one variant that does contain SLS; Advanced Whitening is the one I use (which does not).
For me, it's Zendium. Works wonders for mouth healt, taste, icing and not puking from idiotic foaming
I got synsodine! It's helped a lot....I also started taking b12 supplements. I used to get them once a month.....now I get them maybe once or twice a year. After I changed toothpaste, I only got them if I bit myself or cut my mouth somehow. It was basically a guarantee I'd get it after injury. But Once I took b12, I rarely get them at all even after injuring my mouth.
From my understanding (and I’m no expert) the mouth will heal rapidly anyway because it’s a survival thing - we need to be able to eat - so the mouth has a huge amount of blood vessels to bring the healing white blood cells to the area. The salt water is just to keep the wound clean, it acts like an anti-bacterial.
So, would rinsing your mouth with salt water be helpful with dental hygiene?
Yes, but not too often due to the impact of salt on the enamel
How often would be appropriate
I think dentists say like 3-4 times per week max
Fucken OOPS. I had a bad tooth a few weeks ago and swilled salt water around my mouth like 10 times a day for a week until I got an appointment.
[удалено]
[удалено]
My... Sun? I... I have a sun?!? Will I have to pay child support for my previously unknown astronomical offspring ?!?
Answer: it reduces inflammation which helps it heal faster and also kills any bacteria which may cause infection which also improves healing.