Symptoms and Diagnosis of Angular Cheilitis
Everyone hates having chapped lips. The pain that comes from dry cracked lips is enough to drive anyone crazy. Though many people experience chapped lips there are some who have a severe form that is called Angular Cheilitis. Angular Cheilitis can be caused in several ways including both fungal and bacterial infections.
Here are some ways that you can tell if you have Angular Cheilitis. If you have cracks or fissures in the corners of you mouth you could possibly have the illness. Along with the cracks there is also redness and swelling. The corners of your mouth may be tender and sore. Sores or ulcers may also develop in the area. These sores may start to bleed or even release pus. The skin in the corner of your mouth may start to swell.
Wise Cracks about Angular Cheilitis
Angular cheilitis treatment depends on its cause. Here’s a look at the various methods of treating this condition on the basis of the cause of infection.
Cause 1:
Angular cheilitis is due to Candida infection, which is yeast.
The treatment includes topical antifungal gel and steroids such as Mycolog II. A second version of this steroid is Mycostatin®. Both the versions contain antifungal called Nystatin and steroid called triamnicolone acetonide. The antifungal destroys the fungus while the steroid eases swelling, redness, itching, and pain. However, you need to watch out for the side effects of the steroid. Besides, the topical cream has to be applied very close to the mouth. So, take care you don’t ingest it.
Angular Cheilitis and Your Social Life
Angular cheilitis is not something rare. Millions of people suffer from this condition every year. It’s also known as cheilosis, or perleche, or angular stomatitis. Medical science has conducted research that shows that this condition may be caused due to vitamin and iron deficiencies. Often, it happens more to older people who go through a loss of vertical dimension on account of teeth loss.Most of the cases of angular cheilitis occur due to sheer negligence of people towards caring for their lips. Often, when their lips dry, they hardly notice. When they get cracked lips, they lick them. This is a direct invitation to fungus and yeast to grow at the corners of the mouth causing this condition.
Common Q&A about Angular Cheilitis
Most of the people are ignorant of the basic information about angular cheilitis. Here is a set of questions that would enlighten you on this condition and clear your common doubts you may have.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is angular cheilitis?
A: This is an inflammatory lesion occurring at the corners or sides of mouth. It is marked with red, crusty rashes around your mouth corners. At times, there may be bleeding from these cracks when you open your mouth. In severe cases, pus may form in these cracks. The condition is painful and causes a lot of discomfort.
The Pain of Angular Cheilitis Can Hit Your Self-Esteem
Only the sufferer knows the pain of angular cheilitis. It starts like a harmless rash that might deceive you into thinking that it’ll go away. Slowly, it develops into painful cracks around the corners of your mouth. And you’re left wondering what’s happening to you.
It starts from cracked lips and develops into angular cheilitis. Medically speaking, it’s the swelling of labial commissures (relax; they are just the corners of your mouth). Although the condition is not life threatening, it hits hard on your confidence and appearance. Besides, it’s painful. Also, at times, the condition gets too stubborn to go away by itself. There have been cases in which the condition has even lasted for five long years!
Chapped and Cracked Lips: What They Could Mean
Are your lips cracked and chapped? This could well be the starting stage of angular cheilitis. A large number of people tend to ignore lip care. When their lips become dry, they simply lick them.
Little do they realize that they are creating a favorable environment for yeast and fungus to grow through their licking process, which may lead to cheilosis! Besides, the more you lick your lips, the more they crack. You end up with painful, chapped lips and cracks at the corners of your mouth.
Angular Cheilitis - Do Home Remedies Really Work?
Angular cheilitis or cracked lips are also referred to as chapped lips or cheilosis. When the lips become dry and cracked, it can be very uncomfortable as lips are sensitive. When our skin gets dry, it is capable of producing some oils that protect it, but the lips cannot do this, hence the drying especially in extreme weather conditions like dry heat, cold and windy weather.
It will be a relief to hear that there are quite a few home remedies for the beginning stages of angular cheilitis that really work. Let us take a look at some of these that you can easily do at home to relieve cheilosis.
Top Natural Cures
