Children and adults
Creamy white lesions on your tongue, inner cheeks, and sometimes on the roof of your mouth, gums and tonsils. Slightly raised lesions with a cottage cheese-like appearance. Redness, burning or soreness that may be severe enough to cause difficulty eating or swallowing.
Thrush, a fungal infection of your mouth, happens most often to toddlers and children but can affect anyone. It can result in creamy white lesions on your tongue or inner cheeks. Causes include certain medications and some health conditions, such as dry mouth or diabetes.
How long does oral thrush last? With treatment, oral thrush should clear up in about two weeks. Without treatment, it may last up to eight weeks or longer. Monitor your symptoms and visit a doctor immediately if you believe it has spread to your esophagus, as this can cause more serious infection.
For healthy people, oral thrush is rarely a problem. Cases are almost always mild, and they resolve themselves without any treatment. Left untreated, however, candidiasis of the mouth can flare up into a serious systemic infection that involves several organs in immunocompromised subjects.
Symptoms of candidiasis in the esophagus usually include pain when swallowing and difficulty swallowing. Contact your healthcare provider if you have symptoms that you think are related to candidiasis in the mouth, throat, or esophagus.
In some cases, the symptoms of oral thrush can make eating and drinking difficult. If left untreated, the symptoms will often persist and your mouth will continue to feel uncomfortable. In severe cases that are left untreated, there is also a risk of the infection spreading further into your body, which can be serious.
Oral thrush
A person with weakened immunity is more likely to get a fungal infection in the mouth, especially if they have poor oral hygiene. The infection manifests as white bumps on the tongue and inner cheeks. Oral thrush should be treated immediately because if left untreated, it can lead to health complications.
In many cases, thrush goes away on its own without treatment. A persistent yeast infection may require antifungal medications. These can be taken orally or applied as ointments directly to your mouth. Antifungal rinses are another option for treating thrush.
Thrush usually clears up in 4 to 5 days.
You can get it in your mouth and other parts of the body. It can cause diaper rash in infants or vaginal yeast infections in women. Anyone can get thrush, but it happens most often to babies and toddlers, older adults, and people with weakened immune systems.
Salt kills yeast, so rinsing your mouth with salt water is a good way to fight the yeast infection.
The yeast can form a white film or blotchy patches on top of the tongue. Your dentist can prescribe an antifungal medication to kill the yeast, and brushing the tongue daily will help prevent its return.
Lean chicken, fish and meats. Non-starchy vegetables like asparagus, broccoli, bean sprouts, carrots, cauliflower, cucumber, eggplant, mushrooms, salad greens, tomato and zucchini. Healthy fats like avocado, eggs, nuts and extra virgin olive oil.
While a white tongue often indicates thrush, it can be a sign of another condition. Several oral conditions have similar symptoms to thrush, causing them to sometimes be mistaken for thrush.
Chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis, a hereditary immunodeficiency disorder, is persistent or recurring infection with Candida (a fungus) due to malfunction of T cells (lymphocytes). Chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis causes frequent or chronic fungal infections of the mouth, scalp, skin, and nails.
Hairy leukoplakia causes fuzzy, white patches that resemble folds or ridges, usually on the sides of your tongue. It's often mistaken for oral thrush, an infection marked by creamy white patches that can be wiped away, which is also common in people with a weakened immune system.
For oral thrush treatment, the most popular brand is Paroex Oral Rinse. This type of antiseptic has powerful antibacterial properties that can help maintain a healthy mouth and control and kill bacteria in your mouth.
Other symptoms of esophageal thrush can include: pain when swallowing. burning or itching in the throat or back of the mouth.
Steroid medication: Long-term use of steroid medication can increase the risk of oral thrush. Weakened immune system: People with weakened immune systems are more likely to develop oral thrush. Diabetes: People with diabetes are more likely to have oral thrush, especially if they poorly control their disease.
Symptoms of an Oral Yeast Infection
White mucus (candida mucus) Cracking and redness at the corners of your mouth. A smooth, red area in the center of the tongue. A tickly cough.
It usually takes nystatin liquid around a week to treat oral thrush, you'll need to continue taking it for 2 days after this to make sure all the fungus has been killed.
The easiest and safest way to treat mild oral thrush is to use a topical antifungal, like clotrimazole or nystatin. Clotrimazole is a lozenge that you suck on and nystatin is a liquid that you swish around in your mouth.