Angular Cheilitis and How to Treat It

I decided to write about Angular Cheilitis today because it is something I suffer from periodically and it flared up today, ugh.

What is Angular Cheilitis?

In short, Angular Cheilitis is a type of inflammation in one or both corners of the mouth.
 
What are the Symptoms?

• Initial Symptoms mimic dry lips. You may feel like you need to put extra lip balm in the corners of your mouth.
• Early inflammation may cause a feeling of tightness of the skin in the corners of the mouth.
• As the inflammation increases the tightness will transform into mild pain. When you open your mouth you may feel pain in the corners. It often feels like the skin is splitting.
• Dry skin or flakiness in the corners of the mouth.
• Swelling and redness around the inflamed area.
• Serious Angular Cheilitis can cause blisters or skin that splits in the corners of the mouth.

Luckily, Angular Cheilitis is not contagious, so don't worry about that!

 What Causes It?

There are many things that can instigate it. The main ones are:

• Drooling (i.e. while sleeping)
• Stress or weakened immune system
• Longer or deeper folds of skin at the corners of the mouth
• Allergic reactions
• Nutritional deficiencies, most notably B2 (Riboflavin) and Iron

Almost all cases are afflicted with candida yeast. Candida are naturally occurring in saliva and on the surface of your skin. In fact, your skin is covered in millions of microorganisms that maintain a tiny ecosystem. Occasionally something can cause this ecosystem to be thrown out of whack (the instigators listed above) and the candida yeast can overtake the corners of your mouth. There are also a few bacteria that can overtake your mouth as well.

How can I treat it?

I have had lots of luck clearing mine up in a manner or days by following the procedure below. Please note that I am not a doctor or expert of any kind, I am merely using my personal experience.

Start by taking some vitamin sand minerals that will boost your immune system such as Vitamin C and Zinc. Take some iron and vitamin B complex as well in case you are suffering from a nutritional deficiency. It helps fight the candida yeast you can find a supplement called "oregano oil" in a capsule. Take it once a day until the infection clears up.

That's what I do to fight my Angular Cheilitis. Mine is cause by the vitamin B2 (riboflavin) deficiency and candida yeast, so this is tailored toward that situation. You should probably determine your reason for Angular Cheilitis so you can treat it appropriately.

Always consult your doctor before beginning any sort of treatment program.

What do you do for your Angular Cheilitis? Let me know!