Sore mouth, another side effect from chemotherapy

I have googled this, I have called my Oncologist (the on call Oncologist called me back) and I still don't have a good (for me) answer. I know what to do for mouth sores, I don't know what to do when my whole lower gum and teeth hurt and I mean have me crying. It's not a toothache or gum disease it's like one big mouth sore but not really a sore, just inflammed and HURTS. The oncologist said take 2 vicodin every four hours and use the warm salt water rinse I have been using.


That's all well and good but I don't want to be knocked out or dozing 18 hours out of 24 and it's not doing anything to treat the reason for the soreness and inflamation only treating the pain. The on call oncologist did say that my regular oncologist may have to cut back on the chemotherapy as the chemotherapy itself may be causeing this new side effect (Duh, ya think?)

So anyone have A. Any thoughts on what I should ask my Oncologist for to treat this when I call him tomorrow and B. Any other remedies other than the warm salt water that might help soothe this?

To those from the Colon Cancer Forum, Thank you all for your help. My Oncologists Assistant is phoning in a prescription for the Magic Mouthwash and also is going to try to get me a gel of some sort (I already forgot the name darn it) that she says also works well. I'll post the name when I get it although sometimes insurances don't cover it and it's kind of expensive so we might have to do some finagling to get it covered if possible. So tomorrow Tom and I will go pick up my prescription(s) He already left for work when she called back and so it has to wait, so more vicodin every 4 hours today and warm salt water swishing.


Well I got both prescriptions; one is a mouthwash and the only thing it says is: Lidocaine/Diphenhis/Maalox Su I swish this a teaspoon of this through my mouth 3-4 times a day and it does numb my mouth a bit but does not have the ucky taste of stuff like ambesol and does seem to be working.

The other is Caphosol (Eusapharma) which is a mouth rinse designed to moisten, lubricate and clean the oral cavity including the mucosa of the mouth, tongue and oropharynx which has been shown to prevent and treat oral mucositis in patients receiving radiation therapy or chemotherapy in the treatment of cancer. It comes in clear and blue capsules which I have to mix in a clean glass, swish half in my mouth for 30 second, spit it out then do the same with the rest.

So we shall see how it works in the long run but right now seems to be helping.