Home treatment for mucoceles that works every time

Hi, it sounds like the alum chemically burns the tissue of the mucocele. Combined inflammation and softening of the burnt tissue allows the mucocele to break open. This is a short-term fix and there's a high chance of recurrence. I'd avoid the Listerine also, particularly on an open wound/burn.

Alum is just a spice.  It's not going to burn anything.  It's similar to the salt therapy that's also been mentioned on here. 

It seems to me that the single reason why mucoceles fail to go away and repeatedly return is that they never heal properly (i.e., they remain infected and inflamed).  Alum with Listerine ensures that the area stays relatively free of bacteria.  Over the summer, I went through a bad bout of having a returning mucocele.  One week of the alum/Listerine treatment and it was gone.  It's been over a month without any sign of it returning.

BTW, I've had mucoceles in the past and they've never returned on their own.  It's usually caused by some outside force (such as biting your lip).

Yes Alum is a spice, but it along with many other natural therapies, has the capacity to harm tissue. Garlic is another narutal agent that can burn tissue. Asprin placed on oral tissues burns also, even if the 'painful' feeling isn't present. The tissue reaction you expereicnce is damage/destorying the tissue that is exposed to the agent and through the natural healing action of your tissue it 'heals'/regenerates.

I am glad you have found that this works for you. But it is not without risk. That is all.

There is a possibility that the use of Listerine after opening the wound, actually damages/destroys the salivary/mucous gland that was supplying the mucocele. Who knows.That being said, what are the other effects of exposing an open wound to large doses of alcohol repetitively . Neither you or I know the answer to that.

I understand that my comments do not assist those who are plagued with mucoceles, but I just wanted to put forward the concept that there can be other factors that have not been considered. And these factors may have long-term health effects.

As for mucoceles returning on their own - what is not fixed, will remain broken. If the duct cannot empty, it will once again collect fluid. Those who have attempted to lance a mucocele know that the chances of recurrence is high.

I actually mixed sea salt and distilled water and simply left on mouth for a minute or two, 3 times a day. IT was gone in 3 days. Simply kept getting smaller. NOt sure why it works, but found it on another website somewhere.

How many days did you do this in all, including after seemed treated? My 9 y.o. daughter had one laser removed in Feb and now back bigger than before. Prefer no major surgery, too risky, so listerine sounds great.

I'm sorry your daughter is having trouble. I was able to get rid of mine after around 5 days of treatment. There's no need to go too crazy. Just have her put alum on it for around 15 minutes and then rinse with listerine twice a day or so.

I spoke with my dentist about this today and he said that there was no issue using Listerine in your mouth with a sore. He also suggested dabbing a bit of hydrogen peroxide on the area.

what is alum??

Alum is a spice that can be found in any supermarket. You can find it in granular (like sugar) or powder form. I prefer the powder to get as much surface area as possible. Wet your finger get some powder on your finger and place it on the mucocele. You can make a paste if you put a drop of water on the applied powder. Let it set for 10-15 minutes and rinse with Listerine.

I don't agree with alum or sea salt. Why endanger your health? If you have health insurance go to a ENT medical doctor who can evaluate it, It may be MALIGNANT! If he removes it the specimen can be checked in a lab. It is covered by 99% of our insurance plans, Try to get a ENT doctor who specializes in plastic surgery. The best doctors leave the best results! I had mine done 12/9 and have a followup visit in 1 week. Co pay cost me $20 for the procedure. Another $20 for the biopsy co-pay, It took 5 minutes and it gives you peace of mind. Stay away from oral surgeons as they are not covered by medical plans and the dental plans do not cover all procedures. be careful since they all can do it!

ive had one that come up big and small for years, 5 or more at least. Now there is another huge one on the opposite side of my trap, I've never tried anything but i'm going to try this method, it sounds ok, cheers guys

I've had this growth for over a week now and I thought it was going to turn into a cancer sore. Today it grew so big it's driving me crazy. I've done the research and based on the pictures and descriptions I think I have a Mucocele. But here's my question, it's starting to hurt tonight. I looked in the mirror and and I can see a little area on the side of it that looks torn. Does this mean it has burst? Or is it probably a cancer sore? I'm thinking about the listerine but not sure based on everyone's responses. I don't have dental insurance so I won't be going that route right now.

I drank some Tazo tea called Passion, and it made my mucocele disappear in about 2 hours. I drank the tea every day or every other day for about a week and haven't had one since (about two weeks now). I used to have one every day or every other day and they lasted 24 hours. The main ingredient in the tea is hibiscus, so other hibiscus teas may work as well. There are quite a few available in the market, just look at the ingredients for red teas.

Mucoceles usually don't hurt. They look like a little bubble on your lip. A canker sore is a small open wound, and they can be very painful. A mucocele lasts about 24 hours (in my experience) and will go away by itself, but sometimes recurs for years. A canker sore lasts about a week. Try drinking hibiscus tea.

It worked! Had a big one on my lips 3 weeks ago and treated it with alum and now it healed up. No recurrence the skin on my lower lip looks good. Thanks bigfoot.

Weird story... My three month-long mucocele has vanished. I tried the alum regimen 2 or 3 times and it worked at first, then came back again in a day or two. I resigned myself to having surgery. But I decided to give it one more shot since my surgery was in a week, and be extra vigilant about it. Putting it on twice or thrice or even four times a day wasn't cutting it. So I started putting it on for 15 minutes, every 2 hours, all day. After rinsing it off, I poked the dead white dry skin on top with a needle or exacto blade. It was important to do this every 2 hours to keep the skin from sealing off and filling with fluid again. By keeping the skin peeled back, and continuously drying with alum, it started to heal from the inside out without filling with fluid. There was some blood if I ever poked too deep, but if I just poked the "dead" skin, there was no pain or blood. It started to heal like a crater almost. It took a long time for the redness to go away, but the painful bump was gone within about 4 days. I kept the appointment with the ENT, because I was still having ear infection problems, but there was no need to have surgery at that point because it had gone down so much. I showed him the spot and he was sort of amazed. I didn't tell him how I got rid of it, because I didn't want to be yelled at for possibly causing myself an infection and doing surgery on myself. I just told him "It went away." But it has been gone for 5 weeks now and I feel nothing, like it was never there. He made me promise to keep inspecting it and come back if there were any worse changes, but there haven't been. I would just caution anyone who takes this route to thoroughly rinse all needles with lots of alcohol and then liberally dab the sore with alcohol as well, before, after and during every "poking session." I'm really amazed that mine went away, since I had such a lengthy and painful battle with it.

I had a mucocele removed surgically Dec. 2008 and can't believe how bad the recovery was for something that seemed like it would be a relatively simple procedure.  I still have numbness to this day on a portion of my lip.  I had another little area above the surgical site that seemed affected by the surgery in that it kind of slightly swelled off and on.  Well it reared it's ugly head about a month ago and was a full blown mucocele.  It was in an area that when it swelled up of course it was right in the path of my teeth continually biting it.  This went on for weeks and I could not imagine going through that surgery again so I tried Bigfoot's regiman of Alum and Listerene.  After a week completely gone.  I can't believe it went away as I knew I was headed for surgery again.  I did read about the Alum before using to make sure I was comfortable with what I was putting in my mouth.  I would dip a small piece of slightly wet cotton in the alum and put the alum side so that it rested against the mucocele 2 times a day as indicated and then rinse well with listerine.  Just goes to show that there other things that can work.  Thanks for the home remedy, I would do it again any day over another surgery.

I have a mucocele n hav had it surgically removed once but it came back, i need to get it removed again sugically but are worried that it'll come back again, i found the surgy to be painful sseing as i'm still young I don't want to hav to go through the pain of hav it removed only for it to come back again. I find the salt only makes it bigger, one doctor thought it was a wart and used this burning medicine thing on it but it still came back and this was a actual medicine which would be much more powerful then burning the mucocele with some spices such as alum.i wish there was a home remedey which would b guranteed to work but i dont think there is so i'll just hav to do surgery again =(

I used Collodial silver, 30ppm. When the muccocele burst I placed a small piece of saturated cotton ball in my mouth and allowed it sit in my mouth for 5-10 mins. I did this two times a day, and the muccocele never returned!

I've suffered from mucoceles over the years, starting from a very young age.  I even had one surgically removed when I was around 10 years old.  Now I realize that surgery was completely unnecessary.  There is a foolproof home treatment that has always worked for me.  Simply put alum on the mucocele and let it set for around 10-15 minutes.  Follow up with Listerine for 2-5 minutes.  Repeat this every day until you are healed.
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-bigfoot

Hello bigfoot. I was wondering if you have some photos of your treatment in the process, and did you try the same with salt? (It's the first time I hear of 'alum' spice / food additive... and 'Listerine' mouthwash by the way.) Is there any blood during the process - what happens with capilaries in affected skin?

I am tempted to try the treatmet with salt. Will salt work faster or slower than alum?

It seems that the point is in removing the skin which covered muccocele which blocks it, so mucocele is exposed and can let out saliva (instead of building up) or burst and regenerate correctly. Is it the case? I have mine 7-8 months now. I made a hole with needle to drain it and kept using the same spot whenever mucocele gets bigger (it closes, but it's easily breakable - it was hard to pin it only the first time).