An afebrile 23-year-old man with no cervical gland enlargement presented with the very painful, large, shallow, yellowish-based ulcer shown here.
Classification. Aphthae are classified into three types:
Therapy. Generally, no treatment is needed for aphthous stomatitis. The pain eases within a week of onset, and the lesions resolve in about 14 days. Lesion pain and irritation from teeth and food can be treated by a tetracycline-triamcinolone mouthwash. Topical anesthetic or corticosteroid therapy may be helpful.
Figure 4 shows an ulcer on the right soft palate of a 38-year-old woman who had experienced pain in the right side of her palate and neck. Her cervical glands were not enlarged.
An afebrile 23-year-old man with no cervical gland enlargement presented with the very painful, large, shallow, yellowish-based ulcer shown in Figure 5; there was surrounding injection at the left anterior tonsillar pillar. The lesion responded to treatment with tetracycline and triamcinolone mouthwash.
The aphthae on the right anterior tonsillar pillar in Figure 6 was the cause of this 35-year-old woman’s “most severe sore throat.” She was afebrile, with bilateral anterior cervical gland enlargement that was tender only on the right side.
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