Cheilitis (sore on the lip). How to treat cheilitis?

Cheilitis (sore on the lip) is an inflammation of the mucous membrane of the lip or the red border of it. Cheilitis can be caused by a number of different factors. That is why treatment is also individual. Though cheilitis is a single disease, every single cause of it demands its own specific treatment.

Allergic cheilitis is probably the most widespread type of the disease. In case of allergic cheilitis lips become more sensitive to some substances. They can be contained in dental prostheses, toothpastes or lipsticks. The symptoms of allergic cheilitis are lip edema, burning pain, and vesicular rash. The symptoms are quite unpleasant and painful. To treat this type of cheilitis one should first of all prevent any contact with the allergen, take antihistamines and apply corticosteroid ointments to the sore place. However, it becomes increasingly difficult to treat allergic cheilitis in case the allergen is contained not in toothpaste or lipstick as they can be easily replaced.

Some people may be allergic to materials used to produce dental prostheses. It is rather problematic to replace the prosthesis or even a part of it to stop the allergic reaction. That is why it is recommended to discuss the materials used for your future dental prosthesis with your orthopedic dentist before the prosthesis is produced. This way you will be able to prevent possible allergic reactions.

There are two more similar types of cheilitis. They are the actinic and the meteorological cheilitis. Actinic cheilitis can be caused by excessive exposure to direct sunlight while meteorological cheilitis depends on other climatic factors (wind, frost). The symptoms are lip redness, dryness, light burning. In some cases one may observe desquamation and cracking of lips. Usually it is enough to use corticosteroid ointments and protective creams to prevent such unpleasant symptoms. If these precautions do not help it is recommended to take antihistamines.

Cheilitis glandularis is caused by hypertrophy of salivary glands. Cheilitis glandularis is achronic disease and medicamental treatment will not work in this case. Cheilitis glandularis is treated with the help of operative measures (electrocoagulation or excision of hypertrophied mouths of salivary glands).

Cheilitis exfoliativa appears in the form of yellow crusts with pus or grayish scales. These two forms may even appear together. There is one more unpleasant peculiarity of cheilitis exfoliativa lips become sore and will constantly stick together so the patient has to keep his mouth half-open. The exact cause of cheilitis exfoliativa is not clear. However, many scientists believe that cheilitis exfoliativa can be caused by some psychogenic and hereditary hereditary factors. There are cases when cheilitis needs no treatment at all and the sore will disappear itself. However, in most cases medicamentl treatment of cheilitis is necessary.

The most dangerous form of the disease is called Manganotti cheilitis. The thing is that this type of cheilitis belongs to the group of precancerous conditions. Its symptoms are warty growths and lip erosion. In most cases medicamental treatment of this type of cheilitis turns out to be useless. Then doctors will recommend a procedure of cryodestruction. Otherwise they will have to excise all infected lip tissues.

Even though cheilitis seems to be an ordinary harmless disease you should be careful with it. First of all, sores on the lip will not make you more attractive. Moreover, cheilitis appears in many different forms and some of them may be dangerous. Even if you are sure that your type of cheilitis is harmless it is still better to see the doctor to make sure you are fine.