Shingles & Mouth Pain: Understanding the Connection & Relief

Shingles is a painful, but not life threatening condition. Shingles can be experienced at any point in life, but is most common in adults over the age of 50.

Features

• Shingles is a viral infection that produces a painful rash. It can occur anywhere on the body, but most commonly manifests itself on the chest and back.

Identification

• Shingles is caused by the varicella-zoster virus, which also causes chicken pox. This virus lays inactive in the nerve tissue near the spinal cord and brain.

Symptoms

• Shingles first causes patients to feel pain at a certain point of the body; this is followed by an irritating rash. Patients also feel headaches, fatigue and fever.

Mouth Pain

• Shingles can manifest itself in and around the mouth. This will cause patients to feel extreme pain in the mouth in the days preceding the rash. After a few days of pain, sores will appear on either side of the mouth.

Considerations

• When shingles manifests itself in the mouth it is considered serious. The disease must be treated as a complex herpes infection. Even after the rash is cleared up, shingles can cause a patient to feel pain in the mouth for months, and possibly years after.