ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Chapped, Dry Lips? Dermatologist Tips for Prevention and Treatment

Updated on October 23, 2012

Self-Care Is Usually All that Is Needed

Are you a frequent lip licker? Do you breathe through your mouth rather than your nose? Do you go outside without lip balm or lipstick with sunscreen? Well, stop it!

Licking your lips may temporarily seem to be the answer to dry lips, but in reality, you are only making the situation worse. Your lips have no oil glands to protect themselves from the onslaught of continual wetness.

Breathing through your nose not only aids your body in better filtering incoming air and warming cold air before it hits your lungs, it also prevents your lips from drying out. Mouth breathing tends to dry lips from the continual exposure to air movement.

Lip balm, dermatologists recommend, should be applied daily. Use a lip balm or lipstick with an SPF factor of at least 15. An added prevention and treatment strategy to keep your lips supple and moist is to dab some petroleum jelly on them before retiring to bed.

You should not ignore the value of balanced nutrition and adequate hydration. Iron deficiency and some B vitamin deficiencies can lead to chapped lips that require more than lip balm application for healing. Drink plenty of fluids--lip health is one more reason to follow this oft prescribed advice.

Although chapped, dry lips can occur any season of the year, there are some considerations in cold weather months that add to the likelihood of the condition without proper prevention strategies. The dry heat from cold month heating systems can rob your lips and skin of needed moisture. Add moisture to the air by using a humidifier or simmering a pot of water on the stove at frequent intervals. People with radiator heat can place metal pie pans with water on top of the radiators for added moisture in their homes.

Don't negate the effects of the sun on your lips in the winter. Continue to use a lip balm with sunscreen protection. Protect your lips from the winter elements of wind and cold by keeping your mouth covered.

How to Make Homemade Lip Balm

This hub provides step-by-step directions and photos for making your own lip gloss and lip balm -- and a special recipe for chapped lips. (Hub author: Wordscribe43)

Source
Source

When Chapped Lips Is Something More

The medical term for inflamed lips is cheilitis. There are a number of different types of cheilitis, from simple chapped lips to conditions that require care from a dermatologist or other health care professional. If your chapped, dry lips don't respond to self-care, it is time to consult a health care provider.

Be alert to symptoms such as cracking of the lips, especially at the corners of the mouth (angular cheilitis), swelling of the lips and mouth area, redness around the mouth, sores or lumps under the skin of the lips.

Sometimes cheilitis is caused by an allergy, an infection or rarely, a chronic condition elsewhere in your body. The symptoms aren't going to go away until you've been evaluated by a medical professional who can prescribe the appropriate treatment.

Dermatologist Talks Chapped Lips

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)