Is cheilitis caused by not drinking enough water? Will drinking more water and applying more lipstick help?

As the weather turns colder, many people's lips begin to tighten, peel, and their lip lines deepen. Some friends even have cracks at the corners of their mouths. When they eat hot or spicy food, they immediately feel so painful that they wrinkle their lips into a "pain mask".

Why do you still feel dry and peeling after a while even though you have applied lip balm? In fact, this may not be due to insufficient moisturizing, but rather " cheilitis "!

Cracked and peeling lips,

Beware that the "culprit" is not dryness

Cheilitis is a general term for inflammatory diseases of the lips.

Unlike normal dry lips caused by dry weather, lips suffering from cheilitis will dry out repeatedly even if lip balm is used all the time, and the situation is more serious. For example, there may be a series of symptoms such as redness, severe desquamation, cracking, edema, itching and burning sensation .

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Can vitamin B2 supplementation improve this?

We have heard this advice a lot, but in fact, there are many types and causes of cheilitis, such as -

In rare cases, it may also be part of certain systemic diseases , such as lupus erythematosus, lichen planus, angioedema, pemphigoid/pemphigoid, Sjögren's syndrome, erythema multiforme, Crohn's disease, and sarcoidosis.

Moreover, vitamin B2 is widely found in animal offal, milk, eggs, and legumes. Nuts, dark green leafy vegetables and other foods also contain a certain amount of vitamin B2 . With a balanced diet, most people will not usually be deficient in vitamin B2.

To put it bluntly, there are many reasons for cheilitis, and vitamin B2 deficiency is only one of the reasons , but it is not common . If there is no deficiency, additional supplementation is useless .

Is cheilitis caused by not drinking enough water? Will drinking more water help?

When our lips become dry, we tend to think of “ drinking more water ”, but this may not work for cheilitis.

First of all, lack of water or drinking less water can manifest as dry lips , but after proper replenishment of water, the lips will recover quickly and it is not necessarily related to the occurrence of cheilitis .

For most people, the amount of water they drink on a daily basis is usually not so little as to cause severe dehydration.

And if you're already meeting recommended water intake, there's little data to suggest drinking water alone can help relieve cheilitis.

Therefore, if you want to cure cheilitis, drinking water is not enough.

What should I do if I have cheilitis?

There are many types of cheilitis, and the treatment methods for each type are different . Therefore, if you have similar symptoms, you must seek medical attention in time and receive targeted treatment after a clear diagnosis by the doctor.

Here, we put forward some daily care suggestions for the most common eczematous cheilitis for your reference:

1

Stop licking your lips and tearing your lips

After symptoms of cheilitis occur, be sure to avoid bad habits such as licking and tearing lips .

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Although licking lips and peeling lips feels good at the moment, it will actually "severely" irritate and damage the lip mucosa, causing people to fall into a cycle of " peeling-cracking-bleeding-scabbing-peeling ", so you must work hard to control it.

2

Avoid possible irritants

You can think about whether you have recently come into contact with some irritants or allergens, such as skin care products/cosmetics, food, oral hygiene products (such as toothpaste and mouthwash), etc., and a patch test can be performed if necessary.

In daily makeup products such as lipstick, lip balm, lip gloss, lip liner, etc., common ingredients that have sensitizing effects on the lips include castor oil, benzophenone-3, gallic acid esters, waxes and resins .

If you find that your new products contain these ingredients, it is best to avoid contact as much as possible.

Before buying lip products, you can also look at the ingredient list to avoid buying products containing the above ingredients.

Picture source: Kehua

3

Moisturizing with simple ingredients

In terms of care, for mild symptoms of cheilitis, we should give priority to using some moisturizers/lip balms with a single ingredient, such as the simplest Vaseline, and there is no problem in applying it multiple times a day.

During the outbreak, keep your lips clean . If they come into contact with toothpaste foam, food residues, or sticky juice, clean them with clean water immediately .

4

Low- to medium-potency topical glucocorticoid ointment

If cheilitis does not improve much after moisturizing alone or the symptoms are severe (obvious itching or burning sensation), consider using a low- to medium-effective glucocorticoid ointment for a short period of time to quickly control the symptoms (such as hydrocortisone cream or mometasone furoate cream, etc.).

Use after cleaning lips, apply twice a day, or use Vaseline ointment in combination, Vaseline ointment can be used more often. If the condition recurs after stopping the medication, consult a doctor in time to understand the situation.

If long-term topical medication is needed, in order to avoid side effects caused by long-term use of corticosteroid ointments, you can replace the topical calcineurin inhibitor (such as pimecrolimus cream or tacrolimus ointment) with a doctor's guidance to replace the hormone ointment for long-term treatment.

The above are the treatment methods for eczematous cheilitis. If such measures do not improve lip symptoms much, it is recommended to seek medical attention in time and adjust the treatment method.

Finally, I wish everyone’s lips will be hydrated and tender this autumn and winter, so that you don’t miss out on enjoying delicious food and drinks!

References

[1]Lugović-Mihić, Liborija et al. “Differential Diagnosis of Cheilitis - How to Classify Cheilitis?.” Acta clinica Croatica vol. 57,2 (2018): 342-351. doi:10.20471/acc.2018.57.02.16

[2]Pal, Biplab et al. "Allergic contact dermatitis to lip care cosmetic products - a systematic review." Cutaneous and ocular toxicology vol. 43,1 (2024): 13-21. doi:10.1080/15569527.2023.2275022

Planning and production

Source: Yihe Science (ID: gh_d419887afd37)

Review | Feng Jun, deputy chief physician of the Dermatology Department of Sinopharm Tongmei General Hospital

Editor: Yang Yaping

Proofread by Xu Lai and Lin Lin

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