Mouth burn can result from anything you eat that is too hot, either in temperature or in spice. Taking a bite of steaming hot food can burn your lips, tongue, palate or inner cheek. The mouth burn from eating excessively spicy food typically disappears in less than a day, but heat burns can take much longer to heal.
Solutions
If you burn your mouth with food that is too hot in temperature, it helps to immediately put ice or frozen food in your mouth. Popsicles, because they last awhile, are especially good. Holding very cold milk in your mouth also eases mouth burn. Gargling with salt water can be soothing. If the burn is severe enough to continue causing significant discomfort, try an oral anesthetic, such as cough-prevention lozenges containing phenol, or Orajel medicine. You may need to resort to pain relievers like ibuprofen or acetaminophen.
Considerations
As long as you have a mouth burn, avoid spicy foods, salty products and citrus fruit, such as oranges and lemons, because they can aggravate pain. Sharp-edged items like potato chips also can irritate mouth burns. Another thing to avoid is what caused the problem in the first place--excessively hot food.
Common Culprits
Common problem foods for causing mouth burns are coffee, pizza, soup and deep fried breaded vegetables. Fast food restaurants are notorious for selling coffee which is dangerously hot. Test the temperature with your little finger before attempting to drink it. Deep fried breaded items, particularly juicy foods like mushrooms, can be hazardous because the outside cools while the inside remains extremely hot. Burns on the roof of the mouth from hot pizza is so common that "pizza burn" even appears as a condition in medical journals.
Spicy Food
Mouth burn from spicy food like jalapeño peppers results in pain, a burning sensation, eye tearing and a runny nose. The instigators here are substances called capsaicinoids, which cannot be neutralized by saliva or water. The best immediate treatment for this type of mouth burn is milk.
Time Frame
Mucous membranes, like the surfaces of the mouth and tongue, heal relatively quickly compared to other areas of the body. Most mouth burns heal within a few days, but more severe ones might take a week or two.
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