Many people have the habit of eating mints, thinking they can refresh their minds and remove bad breath. In fact, chewing mints for a long time can irritate the oral mucosa and cause a series of diseases. If not treated in time, it may even cause redness, swelling, ulceration and erosion, and eventually lead to oral precancerous lesions.

Mints contain mint. Mint, also known as sweet potato and sunflower sprout, has anti-inflammatory effects on respiratory diseases. It can dilate skin capillaries, increase heat dissipation, and cause skin cold reflex, so it has antipyretic effects. However, chewing mints for a long time will repeatedly irritate the oral mucosa, leading to thickening of the keratinized layer of the oral mucosa, invasion of inflammatory bacteria, and damage to the oral mucosa.

In addition, chewing gum or betel nut for a long time can also cause damage to the oral mucosa. Chewing gum is made of soft gum mixed with sugar and various spices. Continuous chewing can easily cause the epidermal blood vessels at the tip of the tongue to rupture, and tooth enamel will also be damaged to varying degrees. Eating too much betel nut may also cause oral submucosal fibrosis.

Of course, this only depends on the amount and frequency you eat. Generally speaking, if you take one or two pills a day and the irritation is not obvious, it will not cause much harm.

People should pay attention to various changes in the oral mucosa in their daily lives and detect various oral diseases in time. For example, oral leukoplakia is a keratinized white patch that occurs on the oral mucosa. It generally does not pose a great threat, but highly irritating foods can repeatedly irritate the white spots, causing pathological changes in the oral leukoplakia and the surface becoming It is very rough, and some even have induration, which is a precancerous oral mucosal disease. Another example is oral proliferative erythema, which looks like a layer of red velvet on the surface and commonly occurs on the abdomen, buccal side of the tongue and the gingival mucosa. The canceration rate of this kind of erythema is extremely high. If it can be detected early, it will be of great benefit to treatment.