Could that painful mouth sore be a cold sore?
In the video above, DNews looks into the differences between canker sores and cold sores, and it turns out the differences are pretty clear.
Canker sores are small shallow ulcers confined to the the inside of the mouth, while cold sores are small blisters that form on or around the lips.
When it comes to canker sores, scientists still have a lot of questions, including what exactly is causing them. Cankers have been blamed on stress, food irritants and even on biting the inside of your cheek or lips.
Cold sores, on the other other hand, are well known in the medical field as a symptom of the herpes simplex virus. According to DNews, regardless of showing symptoms, 90 per cent of adults test positive for HSV-1 (cold sores) worldwide. And more than 25 per cent of infected children contracted the virus before the age of seven, LiveScience reports.
But it's also important to remember that 10 per cent of cold sores are caused by oral-genital sex with a person who has active genital herpes, says the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research — so safe sex is always important.
Watch the video above to learn more about cankers and cold sores. Do you have any tricks for treating these types of sores? Let us know in the comments below.
Also on HuffPost
