Review and Giveaway: CankerMelts

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve had the habit of biting the inside of my cheek when I’m nervous, scared or bored. I guess as bad habits go it’s not a horrible one – but it does result in some particularly nasty canker sores from time to time. I’ve tried various over-the-counter remedies (including my kids’ teething gel when they were babies) with limited amounts of success. Rather than have portions of my mouth be numb for periods of time, I usually just suffer through them. And no – it’s not enough to keep me from still biting my cheek. Sigh.

When I was asked if I wanted to try out and review a ‘natural’ product made to help heal (and prevent) canker sores, I was excited to say yes. Wouldn’t you know that I went several weeks canker sore-free after I received it! But I was finally able to try them out recently – and want to share what I discovered.

What they are:

CankerMelts are made by Orahealth USA as an “all natural canker sore solution”. They consist of small flat disks that adhere to the sore area of your cheek or gum, and dissolve slowly over a few hours. You can use the disks over a period of days to completely heal a canker sore – or use one on a sore spot to prevent a canker sore from developing to begin with. They are also handy to prevent or heal sores from braces or dentures as well.

The active ingredient in CankerMelts is Glycyrrhiza extract (1.4 mg per disk), which is also called ‘licorice root’. This provides anti-inflammatory pain relief and healing. Forty percent of the disk is also made up of Collagen, which coats and soothes the sore. There are no preservatives, coloring or known allergens in the disks.

Here’s my take on them:

I received a box of CankerMelts to try. Each box contains a dozen disks (two sheets of six). The disks are about the size of a fingertip and are very easy to place over a sore spot. Once wet, they adhere quickly and become soft after a while as well – helpful for sores on the inside of your cheek, as mine was. After about 10 or 15 minutes, I hardly noticed the disk at all – and after several hours, it had dissolved away pretty much completely. The instructions recommend to replace it immediately with a fresh disk, but I had used it overnight, so waited until morning before placing a new disk. After the second disk had dissolved, the sore was definitely improved – enough so that I waited until nightfall to put on a 3rd disk. Within a day or two, the sore was mostly healed – definitely quicker than when I leave them untreated.

There was just a slight taste to the disks – not unpleasant, but I definitely could tell it was there just from the taste alone. And I wouldn’t recommend eating anything for a while – the instructions recommend waiting at least 30 minutes, and I’d suggest waiting at least that long. Depending on where you place the disk, it may take a while for it to adhere well enough that you can stop holding it in place with your tongue or finger. It took a little while for me to not want to keep poking at it, but I did get used to it fairly quickly.

The bottom line:

These are a good solution if you regularly get sores from braces, dentures or just canker sores in general. I think that I will definitely use them for the bad sores that I get – although I will probably just let minor sores or irritation heal on their own. I found it worked best for me to use them at night since they are fully dissolved by the time you wake up – but for extremely painful sores, you’d probably want to use them almost continually as the directions recommend. I like the fact that these don’t numb my tongue or any portion of my mouth – and that they are a natural product with no preservatives or other artificial ingredients.

Where can you find them?:

CankerMelts are available online through the Orahealth USA website at a cost of $15.99 for a pack of 2 boxes (24 disks). Or you can purchase them at Rite Aid – a box of 12 disks sells for $6.99.

Would you like to try them?:

I have two boxes (12 disks each) of CankerMelts to give away! If you are interested in trying them out for yourself, here are the rules:

1. Enter by leaving a comment on this post and tell me why you think CankerMelts would benefit you. Please don’t just say ‘choose me’, or your entry will be discarded.
2. The contest will run until Saturday, August 9th at 11:59 pm EST. The winner will be selected through random drawing, contacted by e-mail, listed on this post and also submitted to PRIZEY.Fetch.
3. Please leave a valid e-mail address or other way to contact you! If you don’t wish to leave your e-mail address, please make sure that you leave a unique name and check back with PRIZEYWinners to see if you won. If the winner hasn’t responded within 3 days, an alternate winner will be chosen by random drawing.
4. If you’d like an extra entry or two, you can either subscribe to my RSS feed (click on the orange icon in the upper right sidebar), or mention this contest on your blog with a link back to this post – or both. Please leave an extra comment on this post for each of the extra entry options that you choose, letting me know – for a total of 3 comments if you do both extra entry options.

Good luck!

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED – The random number generator has chosen comments #3 and #2 as the winners:

Congratulations to judy brittle (no blog) who said, “This sounds like something I’d love to have on hand. I did get one canker sore lately but mostly I seem to always get those little sores from eating chips and other crunchy foods. I could really use this.” and to Mary @ Adventures in Mommyland who won with her extra entry mentioning her blog post about this contest. I will be e-mailing you both shortly to work out the details.