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What Causes Swelling And Dryness In Lips?
Hello, I m at 22yo female and I ve been experiencing problems with my lips for the past three months and it has gotten much worse in the past 2 days. The best way I can describe the feeling is as a tightness in my lips - they look slightly swollen and feel dry (but not chapped or cracked). Sometimes it is painful or itchy as well, but always uncomfortable. I haven t had any sores on my mouth until the last day or two (but that is most likely a result of my aggressive itching) and I don t have a history of cold sores or anything like that. I ve tried a multitude of different lip chaps (I know not to use anything with dye in it because I get allergic reactions to those) and have mostly used vaseline to deal with it, but I feel like this is not enough anymore. Any thoughts as to what might be causing this problem and what I can do about it?
Mon, 16 Feb 2015
Hi,
You seem to have chronic cheilitis. There may be erythema,dryness,mild scaling, fissuring and crusting. You might have mild pain,burning and itching. There may be some cause. Lip licking might exacerbate the disease. Sunrays exposure, cosmetics,lipstiks tooth paste, dusts...etc might be resposible. Vitamin B complex deficiencies,anaemia or nutritional inadequacy might cause the disease...You consult dermatologist for firm diagnosis and treatment of its cause.
Have blood tests to rule out any internal disease or vitamin deficiencies.
You may take folic acid 5 mg thrice a day with iron tab. Antibiotics may be needed if there is secondary bacterial infection. Apply antibitic cream with mild steroid like mpmetasone. You may avoid soap,cosmetics and lipstik for good and fast result. Avoid bad habit of lip licking,if it is there. Do not traumatise the lip skin with your nails.
You might get good result after few weeks. I hope this would help you in your treatment.
Thanks.
Dr. Ilyas Patel MD
You seem to have chronic cheilitis. There may be erythema,dryness,mild scaling, fissuring and crusting. You might have mild pain,burning and itching. There may be some cause. Lip licking might exacerbate the disease. Sunrays exposure, cosmetics,lipstiks tooth paste, dusts...etc might be resposible. Vitamin B complex deficiencies,anaemia or nutritional inadequacy might cause the disease...You consult dermatologist for firm diagnosis and treatment of its cause.
Have blood tests to rule out any internal disease or vitamin deficiencies.
You may take folic acid 5 mg thrice a day with iron tab. Antibiotics may be needed if there is secondary bacterial infection. Apply antibitic cream with mild steroid like mpmetasone. You may avoid soap,cosmetics and lipstik for good and fast result. Avoid bad habit of lip licking,if it is there. Do not traumatise the lip skin with your nails.
You might get good result after few weeks. I hope this would help you in your treatment.
Thanks.
Dr. Ilyas Patel MD
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