Does prolonged use of face mask cause discomfort in the mouth?

Question

Hi doctor,

I am experiencing some discomfort within my tongue or mouth. I started a new job before two weeks. To build awareness of COVID-19, I gave face masks and leaflets to the local residents near my home. As the job seems to be with risk, it is necessary to take all the precautions. I usually wear a face mask for six hours every day with minimal breaks for three weeks now. I breathe a lot and sweat a lot on the mask through the nose and mouth. I think that this has caused discomfort in my mouth. Before a week, I started to have dullness or numbness in my tongue. I feel weird when my tongue touches the roof of the mouth. My roof of the mouth also experiences dullness. Sometimes, my tongue becomes dry at times and I wake up in the morning with my tongue stuck on the roof of the mouth. Before two days, I started to have discomfort and irritation due to the inflammation and soreness that developed on the tongue. I also have discomfort in the throat. I bought Difflam sore throat rinse and it helped me to reduce the inflammation. I had a hand injury before nine months that caused me to become hypertensive. Does using a face mask cause excessive mouth discomfort? What to do?

Answer 1

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

According to your job nature, you need to perform some laboratory tests to exclude COVID-19 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronovirus 2) infection. You need to do CBC (complete blood count), D-dimer, serum ferritin, and CRP (C-reactive protein). Wearing face masks for more than six hours can make the tongue and mouth dry especially when the mask gets wet from sweat and breath vapor. You need to change the mask every three hours. I advise you to drink an adequate amount of water in a small bottle every six hours. It compensates for the daily water loss and to overcome dryness. I do not think it is due to burning mouth syndrome or candidiasis. It is due to the mask effect only. To be completely honest, these symptoms of numbness and tingling can occur due to neurological disease. Follow my instructions and if you have numbness again, you need to consult a neurologist.

Answer 2

Hi,

Welcome back to icliniq.com.

You have these symptoms due to the prolonged use of face masks. It takes a week to get disappeared. I do not see a sign of fungal or bacteria infection on the tongue (attachment removed to protect patient identity). But you can use an antifungal gel as a prophylactic medication. I advise you to avoid taking antibiotics and there is no need to take them. You can use any antiinflammatory analgesic drug in case of throat pain or tongue pain. Burning mouth syndrome can occur due to some other cause. You need to do these tests such as blood tests, oral swabs, allergy tests, and salivary flow tests. It can result from any of these causes such as hormonal changes, medication, nutritional deficiency due to iron, zinc, vitamin B, mouth infection, and acid reflux.