Are you having blood blisters in your cheeks? This article addresses the causes of blisters including cancer. It also outlines the treatment options available for you.
Blood blisters, especially those that are not associated with any pain are not usually a serious condition. Pooling of blood that escapes from blood vessels leads to the formation of blisters. Blood blisters form when the blood vessels are damaged but the skin is not at all broken. A blood blister that does not hurt usually means that it is neither infected nor inflamed.
Causes of a blood blister in cheek
Blood blisters in the cheek are a problem that many people face. They form due to rupturing of the blood vessels found below epithelial tissues in the mouth. Blood that escapes from these vessels collects together and forms a blister in your mouth.
In most cases, rupturing of these blood vessels is caused by accidentally biting the cheek when speaking or eating. More often than not, the blood blisters in your mouth are most likely associated with biting of your cheek when you are eating.
You may wonder how eating breaks the blood vessels in the cheek. When you eat foods that are hard to chew, they are likely to cause injury on the cheek. Rough food is likely to cause breakage of the blood vessels below the mouth lining. The blood blisters that come about as a result of injury of the mouth lining can either be painful or not painful at all.
Friction
When eating is the main reason most people complain of blood blisters after eating. When you chew food, the teeth are in most cases likely to be in contact with the inner skin of the cheek and hence rubbing of the teeth surface and the cheek occurs. When the rubbing is consistent, it is likely to cause irritation on the cheek surface.
It is important to understand that, the location of the blisters that occur after eating may occur at different positions for different people. The location of the blister is dependent on your way of chewing and how your mouth organs coordinate. The blood blisters occur at different places on the cheek on different occasions.
Crooked teeth
Sadly, if you have crooked teeth, you are among those people whose likelihood of getting blood blisters due to eating is very high. Crooked teeth encourage friction between the teeth and the cheek surface.
Cheek biting
Apart from friction during eating, biting yourself is also another reason you may have blood blisters in the cheek. You realize that, in most cases, you bite your inner cheek subconsciously as you eat and sadly, this is an occurrence that becomes a habit within no time.
Just like the blood blisters are likely to attack people without well-arranged mouth organs, the rate at which you may bite yourself when eating is influenced by how well your mouth organs are arranged. If your teeth, for instance, are not well arranged, you may find yourself biting the mouth cheek accidentally. Simply put, the misalignment of your teeth causes the frequency of biting yourself to be very high.
Hot foods
In addition to friction and biting yourself, taking hot foods may be another cause of the blood blisters. Friction, biting the cheek and eating hot foods; all fall underways in which your cheek tissues may be injured. Too hot foods are likely to burn and thus injure the linings of the mouth.
It is the injuries after the burning of the blood vessels, on the inner side of the cheek, that manifest themselves as blood blisters. After two days of eating foods that are too hot, you may start experiencing the blood blisters.
Allergic reactions
The types of food you eat may also explain the cause of blood blisters. Sometimes, blood blisters are caused by the allergic reactions of your body to some foods. You may realize that the blood blisters start to occur after you have eaten a certain food. Blisters that occur due to allergic reactions are in most cases painless.
You may eat sweets or even too much chocolate and then you wake up to blood blisters in your mouth. The blisters are what show the allergic reactions of your body to, perhaps, too much sugar. Blisters due to allergy occur suddenly and they disappear in a few days.
Eating acidic foods
This is another reason as to why you may get blood blisters in your mouth. Usually, the acids damage the inner tissues in the mouth and the end result is a formation of blood blisters in the mouth cheek. That aside, eating foods with too many spices leads to damage of the mouth cheek inner surface and therefore blood blisters start to appear.
Blood filled blister inside mouth cheek
The small red blister on the inside of the cheek shows a collection of blood. The blood crowds I one place when blood vessels are injured. However, there are so many other reasons apart from an injury that explain the reason for the blood-filled blister on your cheek. The reasons explaining why you may have the small blister in your mouth include the following;
Allergies
Some medications trigger allergic reactions that result in the blisters forming in your mouth. However, you may not know whether the medicines are reacting until the doctor advises you accordingly. Citrus fruits in most cases cause allergic reactions in your mouth and they are sometimes linked to the occurrence of the small red blisters on the inside of your cheek.
Some conditions leave the body intolerant to gluten, a general name for plant proteins. If you have this condition and you feed on gluten, there is a reaction that shows itself by the formation of small red filled blisters in the mouth cheek. Since celiac disease may cause blood blisters to suddenly form, the condition should be treated immediately.
Oral ulcers
When there are excessive microorganisms in the oral cavity, you are likely to get small red spots on the cheek. These small spots turn out to be oral ulcers. The sores in the mouth due to oral ulcers turn out to be mouth blisters.
The affected persons often have blisters with blood trapped inside. In the case of small red blisters on the cheek due to oral ulcers need to be treated since they may cause extreme discomfort.
For people who take alcohol, their mouth cheeks are very likely to have blood blisters. This is because alcohol is ulcerous.
HIV/AIDS
The small blood-filled blisters in your cheek could be a sign that you have weak immunity. If such blisters are recurrent and persistent, there is a possibility that you have HIV/AIDS. In that case, there is a need for a blood test.
Vitamin deficiency
If you have a small red blister in your cheek, you should check on your diet to be sure you are taking enough vitamins in your diet. When you lack vitamin B12 and vitamin C, you are likely to have blood accumulating in your mouth cheek and you end up with blisters. To avoid such problems, enrich your diet with vitamins.
Oral Herpes
This is a medical condition which leads to the formation of blood blisters in the inner cheek. Herpes simplex virus 1 causes the condition. In this case, you can only treat the small red blister in the mouth cheek by first treating the underlying condition.
Low platelet count
From science, platelets are in charge of blood clotting. When you have insufficiency of platelets, the blood clotting process cannot be carried out effectively and efficiently. The result is that there is increased blood flow into the mucous membranes. In such cases, the likelihood of getting the small red blisters is very high.
When there is excessive blood below the mucous membranes, the blood blisters form. Any small injury around the mouth causes the blood to flow to the mucous membranes. The blood blisters that appear in the inner cheek as a result of low platelet count are in most cases painless.
Oral cancer
If you have small red blood-filled blisters, you need to see your doctor just in case that is a symptom of mouth cancer. Cancerous lesions that form in the mouth that is in the mouth cheek are in some cases filled with blood and bulging outwards happens and blood blisters are observed.
You can always tell if the blood blisters you have are cancer-related. This is because cancerous blood blisters are very persistent and they never get treated to disappear completely.
Angina Bullosa Haemorrhagica
Among the many medical conditions that are associated with blood blisters in the mouth is ABH. Angina Bullosa Haemorrhagica is characterized by the sudden appearance of blood blisters in the mouth cheek without a specific cause. When you realize that you suddenly have blood-filled blisters all over your mouth that spread at a very high rate, you need to have this condition assessed.
Some of the activities that trigger the occurrence of this condition are; eating foods that are too hot or even dental; procedures that you have recently gone through.
Diabetes
If you have red blisters in your mouth, you should consider the possibility of having diabetes. People who are diabetic are likely to get a bacterial infection in different parts of their body. Diabetes condition leads to sudden changes in the blood vessels under the skin.
Blisters in the mouth can be related to diabetes especially when they occur and after a short time, they become blood filled. Diabetes blisters usually are not red until they are infected. It is, however, difficult to classify a blister as being caused by diabetes until a test is done.
Blood blister in mouth no pain
Blood blisters in the mouth can hurt or not hurt. The pain of the blood blister in your mouth depends on the cause of the blister in most cases. Some of the causes of painless blisters include the following;
Biting yourself
If you have a painless blister, you probably just bit yourself unknowingly. There is therefore nothing much to worry about. You maybe have teeth with sharp ages and therefore you could have bitten yourself blisters continue to occur; even while chewing or even talking.
Low platelet in blood
As explained earlier, low platelet count is one of the reasons you have blood blisters in your mouth. It is very important to note that the blood blisters caused by few platelets in your blood do not actually hurt. As you try determining the causes of the blisters in your mouth, you could eliminate some causes on the bases of pain or no pain.
Pictures of blood blisters inside cheek
The appearance of the blood blister in the mouth cheek may be of different size or may have a varying degree of redness for different people. The doctor observes the blood blister before carrying out further tests. The way the blister appears is always a hint on the probable cause of that blister and perhaps the severity. Below are some pictures of blood blisters inside the mouth cheek:
Treatment for blood blisters in the mouth
Although the blood blisters can go away on their own, you can still treat them either by medication or use of home remedies.
The only time you are advised to seek medical attention is if the blood blisters are very painful and are caused by other reasons apart from eating. Blood blisters in the mouth may be caused by an underlying condition and that is why you should see a doctor. Antiviral medicines are in most cases used in the treatment of blisters.
In case accessing the doctor is very difficult; you can decide to let the blood blisters heal on their own since in this case, we are putting into consideration the appearance of painless blood blisters. The major reason people want to treat even the painless blood blisters in the mouth is that they cause a lot of discomforts.
Blood blisters in your mouth, even if painless, make it hard to eat food or drink comfortably. There is always a feeling of disturbance when the food or drink being consumed comes into contact with the blood blister in your mouth. For this reason, you may be eager to know the means by which you can eliminate these blisters without using any medicines. Below are useful home remedies;
Drinking tomato juice
This is one of the ways through which blood blisters in your cheek can be gotten rid of. Most preferably, use tomato juice in its natural form. You are advised to pick a tomato and squeeze the juice into a cup then drink it as often as possible. The tomato juice facilitates faster healing of the blisters.
Mouthwash
Make yourself a mouthwash by adding sea salt to lukewarm water. You could also add baking powder. The saline mixture allows the blisters to heal faster by majorly sterilizing them. Wash your mouth at least two times in a day with this mixture for best results. Alternatively, you could just find an antibacterial mouthwash which you can use on a daily basis.
In case you have the painful blisters, you could apply peppermint so that you are relieved of the pain or any irritation that the blood blisters cause. To treat blood blisters in your mouth at home, you could try gargling with cold and hot water alternatively. You could do this up to six times a day.
Honey
This is another remedy that frees you from the discomfort of blood blisters. Since it honey has great healing properties, the tissues on the inner side of your cheek heal and the blood blisters disappear when honey is used.
For better results, you could mix honey with coconut water. The mixture not only helps in healing the blisters but also has the ability to cool the tissues and improve the general health in your mouth organs. More specifically, drinking plenty of coconut water will prevent the blisters from recurring.
Turmeric powder
A mixture of turmeric powder and glycerin when applied on the blisters in your mouth (cheek) the blisters disappear in less than three days. This shows the healing properties of the mixture.
Bananas
In the case where the blisters in your mouth occur frequently, you are advised to eat lots of bananas and curd. Fruits such as bananas are rich in vitamin C and play a key role in the healing of the skin. However, even though fruits may be a good choice in treating your blisters; avoid acidic fruits at all cost since acids irritate the blisters and may even worsen them. Choose your fruits wisely if you must use them.
Change your toothbrush
Sometimes, the blood blisters in your mouth occur due to poor oral hygiene. Aggravation of the tissues happens when you use a toothbrush at the time when you have blisters. Use a soft brush to avoid irritation of the cheek skin. To avoid making the condition of the blisters more severe, use your fingers to brush up to the time you will be healed completely.
Coriander seeds
Coriander seeds may also be used to treat the mouth blisters. Add coriander in water and allow the mixture to boil. Use that water to gargle at least three times in a day.
Basil
You can also use basil; leaves to treat your blisters. Chew basil; leaves two times in a day. This helps to heal the blisters in your cheek as well as prevent bad breath.
Mulberry juice
Mulberry juice is also helpful in the case where your blisters are inflamed and infected. This juice helps to eliminate the pain as well as alleviate the blisters.
Where vitamin deficiency is identified as the cause of the red blisters, you are advised to feed on foods that are rich in vitamin B2 and Vitamin C. Such foods include; broccoli, fresh vegetables, eggs, milk, meat, and poultry.
Witch hazel is useful in drying the blood blisters since it is an astringent. It also prevents any possible inflammation as a result of the blood blisters occurrence in the mouth cheek.
Turmeric paste would be of so much help especially at the time your blood blister is painless. Some blisters in the mouth cheek may start as painless and then upon getting infected, they become very painful. Turmeric paste aids in the healing process and more importantly prevents infection of the blood blister.
Ice may also be used in the treatment of the blood blisters. When you place ice on the blister, it causes constriction of the blood blister. The end result is therefore that the blood blisters stop bleeding.
Sandalwood powder is another homemade treatment for blood blisters. It enables absorption of heat away from the blister and that way, healing takes place at a faster rate. In the case where the blister is infected and you are experiencing too much pain, it acts as a pain reliever. Sandalwood also helps reduce inflammation of the blood blister.
References and sources
- http://www.treatcure.com/blisters/blood-blister-mouth-roof-tongue-lip-gum-cheek-pictures-causes-get-rid-treatment/
- http://www.home-remedies-for-you.com/blog/blood-blisters-in-mouth.html