The importance of oral hygiene must not be forgotten. Keeping teeth brushed and giving up smoking are even more important in people with lupus. If the mouth is particularly sore a soft toothbrush can be used. Some people with lupus can develop discoid skin lesions which are slightly elevated, red areas of skin. The term discoid came from their appearance of looking like red coins or discs on the skin.
Similar lesions can occur inside the mouth or nose and occasionally they can also ulcerate.
This type of problem is much less common in people with systemic lupus and is more likely to occur in people whose condition is fairly limited to the skin. Again common sense such as the importance of oral hygiene, stopping smoking etc applies. There is some suggestion that people with discoid lupus in the mouth, where it is very florid, may be at greater risk of this turning into cancer. People can read this and get very worried about it. It should be pointed out that this is very unusual and really only applies to the most extreme cases but obviously will be carefully watched for in that very small number of individuals.