Oral Yeast Infection – How It Happens, What It Looks Like And How To Prevent And Treat It
When a yeast infection is oral (in the mouth) it is sometimes called Thrush. The yeast infections are particularly common in the vagina – they simply thrive in warm and moist parts of the body – folds of skin in the obese, the genitals, the anus and of course the mouth are all places more likely to show symptoms of the fungus, Candida Albicans overgrowth.
How Thrush happens: Candida lives on all of us in small numbers harmlessly. Amongst the many other microorganisms living on us we also have healthy or good bacteria. These keep the fungus at low numbers and therefore help us to avoid yeast infections. If the numbers of healthy bacteria go down for whatever reason, the number of fungus will go up and this overgrowth generates a yeast infection. There are a number of reasons the body can become out of balance such as taking of corticosteroids, using antibiotics over a long period of time, being diabetic, poor diet, certain illnesses particularly those that weaken the immune system, treatment for cancer and hormonal times such as pregnancy for women.
Symptoms of Thrush: The infection can develop very quickly and can last for a long time. Common signs are white spots in the mouth on the tongue and inner cheeks, and possibly even on your gums and tonsils too. These spots are painful and can bleed if scraped. If it spreads to the escophagus, it is hard to eat or swallow and there can be a feeling that the your food is getting stuck.
Preventing Thrush: There are things you can do to help prevent an infection of the mouth happening. Keeping excellent oral hygiene is important, which involves brushing twice a day as well as flossing. Mouthwashes are not a good idea as they upset the balance of microorganisms in the mouth and may deplete good bacteria making you more likely to get a yeast infection. Smoking is not good and if you are a smoker your odds of getting Thrush are higher.
Key treatment options: There is a lot of discussion going on nowadays about natural treatment versus medicated for yeast infections. The choice has to be yours as there are some people that get good results with over the counter products, and then some that do not. Whether you choose the medicated lozenges etc to treat your Thrush, or whether you choose something like plain probiotic yogurt, you still are just treating the symptoms. There was a trigger that caused that overgrowth and you need to identify it and deal with it to really ensure it does not happen again.
For more info on how to deal with candida, check out our candida symptoms and cure website, where you can find plenty of information on the subject. Today’s special: oral yeast infection

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