Candida lives in many people mouths and it is not pathologic. But that happens when the fungus is kept under control by the physiologic bacteria from our body including the mouth. When the “good” bacteria are destroyed by various reasons and factors the fungus can develop with no restrain. This is when a yeast infection appears.
The changes produced by a yeast infection in the mouth are known as “Thrush”. This infection is affecting the surface and it can be found in the corners of the mouth, the insides of the cheeks. Also it can affect the tongue, palate and even the throat. It is very frequent to babies who contacted the infection at delivery from a mother that had an active vaginal yeast infection. Symptoms of thrush usually follow within 7 to 10 days after birth
Older children and the adults normally do not have a yeast infection that easy. For this to take place their immune system must be very weak. There are a lot of factors that can do this: stress, some diseases like cancer or diabetes, treatments like chemotherapy, or antibiotics taken in excess. The antibiotics are very dangerous because they can kill the “good” bacteria from our body and this will help the yeast infection to spread without control. Also a weak immune system can cause foreign toxins to enter the body and cause allergies. Also another good environment for Candida to develop is a dry mouth. So, any medicines that cause less saliva in your mouth as a side effect stimulate in fact the growth of Candida and the appearance of Thrush.
There are certain people that have a higher risk to develop a yeast infection. Those people are the elder ones; those how have diseases that weaken the immune system: cancer, diabetes; people who are malnourished are also a good example
As a first symptom, Thrush affects the taste in your mouth. The taste will be deteriorated and will slowly disappear. After this, in the mouth, curd like white patches will appear inside the mouth on the thong, palate and in the corners of the mouth. What is characteristic with these patches is the fact that they will let behind a red, inflamed area that may bleed slightly, if you try to scrape off the whitish surface. Also skin from the corners of the mouth may be affected: we can find cracked, red, moist areas.
Pain is a rare symptom in this disease. It often is missing. This is not the case if we talk about Thrush that appears to infants. For them Thrush is a painful infection. Infants who do have painful patches may be fussy, irritable and feed poorly.
The diagnosis of this infection is not always very easy to put. The first doctor who will take contact with the Thrush is the one that examines your mouth: the dentist or physician. He will see the white patches that scrape off with a tongue blade or gauze pad. In most cases this examination is more than enough. But there are cases of doubt. In these cases a biopsy from the patches will be made – this means a small piece of skin is removed with a scalpel and examined in a laboratory. This is the principal laboratory examination and is more than enough to put a diagnosis even for the hardest cases. If the infection becomes chronically and frequent episodes appear, supplementary investigations must be made in order to find the cause of the yeast infection. There are various causes: some diseases that weaken the immune system – like diabetes or cancer or HIV infection; treatments like chemotherapy; antibiotics taken in excess. For all these causes specific tests will be made.