Angular Chelitis/dry red skin corners of mouth

[crystal423]

I've suffered with these red dry patches on and off for a really long time now not just in the winter and I'm getting fed up of it. Lip balms don't work, sometimes hydrocortisone works but if I stop using it it comes right back and I don't want to use that every single day as it can thin the skin. It looks disgusting. No cuts just red circles left always worse than right. Hoping someone has some good recommendations that can help me get rid for good. I used to use eumovate but they discontinued it.

Someone must be able to help?

Hi Crystal, it's possibly a vitamin b deficiency - easily fixed. Eat lots of beans and it should clear.

Agree about vitamin B. I would take a supplement.

Also - long shot - I get these when I use certain lip balms - especially those with peppermint oil in them!

I had that - and the corners split too.

I mentioned it to my dentist and she told me to change toothpaste. And bingo it stopped happening.

I still get a little red patch on one side which I think is excema, but I have that in patches on my face anyway.

So try changing toothpaste. I'd been using one for 'ultra" sensitive teeth.

Try avoiding shampoo, just use conditioner. And apply sudocreme x

I get this when run down. I don’t know for certain but I’m inclined to agree with other posters about vitamins. Stock up on lots of healthy food & vitamins, drink plenty and try to take care of yourself. Works for me 👍🏻

Vitamin B. Marmite (eaten, not smeared on) should help. Do you wear a denture or braces at all?

You could try an SLS free toothpaste but make sure it has fluoride in.

B12 cured mine

Iron deficiency or Vitamin B.

One of the toothpastes our family uses does similar to me, i think it's the Oral B whitening one.

I had this and it turned out to be a thrush infection in the crack of the lips. I applied canneston and it went in two days

I have had this for the past three winters and it's driven me nuts. Last year it got infected with thrush so canesten cleated it up.

This year I started taking vitamin pills which helped but then it got worse again so I finally saw the nurse at my GP surgery. They gave me a steroid cream which also has an antibiotic and it cleared up and hasn't come back. It was deeply cracked and bleeding though.

I’ve had this lots of times too, usually triggered by foods that I’m mildly allergic to such as plums or walnuts. Since avoiding the trigger foods it thankfully hasn’t come back.

I also had this for a few years. Things that I found helped:

• Eating fresh pineapple each day
• Making sure I cleaned my teeth twice a day - if I miss brushing at bedtime I can feel it in the corners of my mouth the next morning
• Finding a lip balm that I could tolerate (for me this was burts bees) and using it as soon as it started until it finished

I also think that drinking alcohol was a trigger sometimes. I've got it under control now but it took ages to work it out.

Good luck. It's horrible!

Thanks for the recommendations, I'll give the supplements a try, are they any ones in particular I should use or just any vitamin b / vitamin b12 ones? Not sure if relevant but I am a vegetarian although I do eat some quorn but maybe I'm not getting the vitamins/nutrients I need. Toothpaste wise I alternate but lately I've been using pearl drops or oral b. No braces or dentures

I'm vegan and take Vit B supplements and Iron as standard, but used to get this regularly in the winter even before I was vegan.

I find Sudocreme applied 3-4 times a day very beneficial.

Marmite is cheaper than vitamins!

Marmite is cheaper than vitamins

I think I would prefer vitamins

Clicked on here as Dd has something like this on her lips and has really been getting her down.

She has had steroid creams and antibiotic cream.

Got more info on here than the multiple doctors appointments which have treated symptoms but not the cause

We are vegetarian so will get her some B12 and will get her to keep a food diary for a couple of weeks to see if there are triggers if it doesn’t clear up.

@oliversmumsarmy I work in NHS commissioning and poverty is a real issue, vitamins would be a real luxury for many people.

Hope you get your DD sorted, fucidic acid ointment is highly effective if you're seeing a Dr about it.

My son had it and his dermatologist said that new research shows that it can be due to a zinc deficiency

I had it, gave up shampoo it stopped (also dry eye lids). Used shampoo recently for removing a hair color and the dry eyelids and cracked corners of mouth returned! Stopped the shampoo and it went away x

Mrsmorton I don’t care how poor i was Marmite is so horrible I couldn’t eat it and a jar of marmite I think is similar to a jar of B12 tablets

She has had the fucidic ointment which worked whilst she used it but then when she stopped it came back.

Then the next doctor told her the ointment had dried out her lips and that she needed a moisturising lip balm.

Then when that was having no effect she went back and they gave her a prescription for the ointment and it became rinse and repeat from there.

She has given up going as they aren’t interested in clearing it up.

@oliversmumsarmy I think if you look, my original comment about marmite being cheaper than vitamins wasn't aimed directly at you.

The beauty of the NHS is that it's not all about anyone. Neither was my comment. Just because you can afford vitamins, doesn't mean everyone can.

Mrsmorton

I think marmite is probably more expensive than a jar of vitamin b12