Angular Cheilitis

What is Angular Cheilitis?

If you have painful and reddish cracks on either side of your mouth, there is a very huge chance that you might be suffering from Angular Cheilitis. This is actually an inflammation which often bleeds when the mouth is moved and crusts during the healing process. Angular Cheilitis is also known as cheilosis, perlèche and / or angular stomatitis.

Classifying Cheilitis

Cheilitis is basically the inflammation of the lip and perlèche is only one type. There is Cheilitis exfoliativa (happens when the thin layer of skin on the lip doubles in thickness and then sloughs off), Actinic cheilitis (is very serious and may become squamous cell carcinoma) and Allergic contact cheilitis (caused by hypersensitivity reactions), among so many others.

The Root Cause of Angular Cheilitis

There are various reasons why one may be affected by Angular Cheilitis. Here are the most common ones:

Mechanical Factors – Wearing dentures, obstructive tooth braces, flossing, too much salivating and licking your mouth are some of the most common factors of this problem.

Infectious Agents – The two most prevalent pathogens causing this form of stomatitis are Candida albicans and Staphylococcus. It is also possible that these painful fissures in your mouth are signs of HIV.

Certain conditions such as prognathism or jaw protrusion, Xerostomia, Down’s Syndrome and even aging causes this problem as well.

Nutritional Deficiency – Lack of Riboflavin and Iron is a very common cause of Cheilitis. Zinc, Protein, Niacin and Folate deficiency are also possible causative factors.

Inflammatory Reactions – Such as Eczema or Dermatitis may also lead to Cheilitis.

Although not so common, extreme cold weather and climate may also give one Angular Cheilitis in the form of chapped lips. This is also painful but is not so serious, compared to the other possible causes. It is easier to deal with and prevent as well.

The Signs and Symptoms of Angular Cheilitis

Besides the lesions and the subsequent discomfort or pain that it causes, there are several other symptoms of Angular Cheilitis depending on what is the reason behind its presence.

Dryness and scaling of skin elsewhere in the face and body may be due to Eczema or Dermatitis.
If seen with alopecia and inflammatory bowel disease, the cause may be zinc deficiency.
Pale and atrophic tongue with no visible papilla may be due to lack of iron.
Malnutrition is due to parenteral nutrition

The diagnosis of Angular Cheilitis is made clinically, which means that people

However, laboratory tests are done to know the exact etiology of the problem is.