Thrush Mouth Infection

Thrush is a yeast infection in your mouth caused by the Candida fungus. Candida is a naturally occurring fungus in your mouth that usually does not cause any symptoms unless it starts to grow when you have a lowered immune system.

All Ages Are Affected

• Thrush is normally thought of as a condition that affects infants, but children and adults can get it as well.

Symptoms

• Thrush symptoms are white or yellowish spots on your tongue, which may bleed if scraped. There could be a painful, burning feeling on your tongue and in your throat.

Compromised Immune System

• People are more susceptible to thrush when they are sick, have diabetes, are on chemotherapy, have HIV/AIDS, are taking antibiotics or steroids, are drug users, have poor nutrition or have poor health.

Diagnosing

• When a baby has thrush, the doctor can usually tell by his symptoms. He might scrape his tongue and send the sample to the lab for confirmation that it is thrush. Thrush in infants can interfere with eating, so take them to their doctor as soon as possible.

  In older people, the doctor probably also will have a tongue scraping sample examined by a lab.

Treatment

• Thrush is treated with oral antifungal drugs. But the underlying condition that caused the thrush in the first place needs to be taken care of, especially in adults.