Cut on the inside of my lip that won’t heal - ever seen this before?

[Catladyhere]

For the past three weeks I’ve had a vertical cut on the inside of my upper lip that is not healing at all. I don’t know where it came from, it’s not white, it’s a clean cut that almost looks like I did it with a knife!

I’m really panicking about mouth cancer, but every medical site/image I’ve seen talks about mouth ulcers.. and I don’t think this is an ulcer?

I spoke to you GP today and she’s referred me to the head and neck team at my local hospital because I’ve had it longer than three weeks.

I have a three year old and I’m already thinking the worst.

I was just wondering if anyone has seen something like this and has any advice? Or healing tips?

I've had that from sleeping with my mouth open. It dries out and splits.

@CottonSock I snore and definitely sleep with my mouth open - how long did yours take to heal?

My children's dad had the same issue one winter, he may have even had two at the same time.
In his case they disappeared without medical help...it did take weeks. I presume it was harmless.

I agree it doesn't look like an ulcer. I will say though that I do sometimes get ulcers that last longer than 3 weeks and that is normal for me. I get ulcers a lot. Whenever I'm stressed, dehydrated or underslept I get them (ie basically all the time lol)

Things that help my ulcers (it can't do any harm to try these even if it's not an ulcer): drink way more water than usual, take vitamin B supplements (I take a double dose when I have an ulcer - vit B is quite low risk of overdose), gargle with himalayan salt water, drink boiled water, sleep more.

I got a random (rare) viral wart on my lip that looked like a blood blister - I had a couple of minor ops on it, one when I was pregnant. Lips heal really well if there is anything that needs to be removed. No scarring, quick to recover. Good luck getting diagnosis.

Get it checked by a dentist
they’re the experts in mouth/ soft tissue ‘things’. There’s a load of things it could be most of them are totally ordinary and not very exciting
but get it looked at sooner rather than later

in the mean time I’d put Vaseline on it to keep the skin soft and help it not to crack open when your eating

I get that too every few months - it lasts a few weeks, and sometimes it reopens so lasts a bit longer.

OP if it's just dried and split, try a few nights with Vaseline or lip balm on before you go to sleep.

Kindly, I think you need to step away from Google - worrying about cancers and leaving your kids without a mother isn't going to help.

Have you tried an intense moisturising lip balm? Looks like when I had super cracked/dry lips from the cold weather. Took a couple weeks to heal because any time I would even smile too much, it would crack open again! You've done the right thing by getting it looked at though. Keep us updated.

Loads and loads of Vaseline should do it.

I get these in the corner of my mouth a lot. A pharmacist can usually advise. My worst one lasted months and finally got a mild steroid prescribed by the gp to get it to heal.

I used to be really prone to cuts like these but haven't got many at all since using the lanolips brand lip balms. Would recommend applying multiple times a day to see if that does anything!

@Bobbybobbins if you get them at the corners of your mouth do you feel tired or run down at the same time? The condition is referred to as angular cheilitis and can be a symptom of low iron levels- so you might need to take a supplement and eat some more broccoli, spinach, red meat etc , or low B vitamin levels (among other things).

I suffer from Angular Cheilitis due to iron deficiency and B12 deficiencies from time to time.

Once or twice it's hung about king enough to get a little fungal infection in (it goes redder) so I've needed an anti fungal from the go, usually I just up my diet and supplements.

However OP I used to also suffer from the vertical lip crack under my Cupid's bow......can be bloody painful! I used to put Elizabeth Arden 8 hour cream on it (smells like bummin germolene) and improve my diet/up my vitamin supplements!

*blummin germolene.......there has been no bummin of germolene in this household! 😂

Hello!! Can you please share what the end result of this was ? Did you figure out a cause? I have the same thing in the same place and off for a biopsy today.

Hello I have the same issue, a split lip in my upper lip. Did you find out what it was??