Treatment for Lip Licker’s Dermatitis:
During cold weather, the lips may become dry, scaly, and cracked. As a remedy, most people resort to licking the lips with their tongue. This remedy offers temporary relief by wetting and thus ‘œmoisturizing’ the area where the dryness or scaling is experienced. The problem with this ‘œremedy’ is that people has the tendency to overdo it and may cause more dryness, redness, scaling, and irritation around the lips. Moreover, because saliva is employed to moisturize the affected part, it may bring in more bacteria because certain chemicals in the saliva break the skin of the lips, thereby causing dermatitis.
It is important to seek for immediate remedy for lip licker’s dermatitis because of the great risk of infection. This is because once dryness around the lips is felt, a person is tempted to wet it with his tongue and that may aggravate the condition.
Remedies for Lip Licker’s Dermatitis
- If a child frequently has the condition due to constant licking of lips, the best remedy is to provide a pacifier. Doing so will give the child something to lick and keep his mouth busy with, thereby eliminating the habit of licking the lips with the tongue.
- Moreover, a parent may replace the licking habit by something that will still be able to give enjoyment to the child without the harmful effect that licking with the tongue brings about. For example, the child can be given with lollipops or candies to replace the habit of lip licking.
However, if the condition persists despite the above-listed remedial measures, then the following should be tried to eliminate or at least lessen the incidence of lip licking:
- Apply a bland moisturizer on the lips to cure lip licking dermatitis. These will moisturize the lips, making it feel wet. When this is the case, the need to lick it with the tongue is eliminated. Applying the moisturizer should be done frequently or as soon as the previous application begins to lose its effect.
- There are also healing ointments available, and these are proven good in treating lip licker’s dermatitis.
- If all else fails, the best remedy is to educate the person or child concerned. In order to achieve this, it may be necessary to show certain photographs of lip licker’s dermatitis to the child. This will make the child think about the consequences of lip-licking.
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I’m 73 and have developed the horrible habit of licking my lips. My husband says I look like a snake (that helps!!) Anyway, my mother used to do this many years ago. My lips don’t seem dry, it’s more like a nervous habit and it’s worse when I’m concentrating on something. Help!!!
Are you taking medicines for any diseases like hypertension or depression etc? Lip licking may be a simple mechanical problem when you have removed your front teeth.
Or this abnormal movement can be due to certain medicines taken for a long time, such as anti psychotic medicine, antidepressants, levodopa to treat Parkinson disease etc.
If the habit is due to nervousness, try yoga or meditation to get relief from it. In other cases you can talk to your doctor to determine an exact cause.
My son also licks his lips, he has been doing it for a couple of YEARS now. It is worse over the winter when the air is so cold and dry. I just got him to start applying chopstick on his own and I put Vaseline one his lips every night, but I still can’t break him of the actual habit.
My son has this very bad. I am looking for any suggestions. I feel we have tried tons of treatments and nothing has helped yet; I went to the doctors twice, but the cream they gave was called Alcotin and it stings so he wont use it; I even tried sneaking in his room and applying stuff while he was sleeping. His skin all around his lips are red and he looks like a clown. I feel so bad for him and I worry this will permently scar his face.
Did you try applying Aloe Vera juice to the affected area? Just do a little bit to start with. You can get Aloe leaves from the market and cut it to get some juice and apply. Ask him not to lick that as he may find it bitter. Hope this helps a bit.
My dermatologist stated that i have this but I do not lick my lips, they are just very itchy all the time and consequently gave me the habit of picking/peeling my lips; including the skin around my mouth. now my mouth has blackish skin around my lips and I want it to go away. any suggestions? By the way, Vaseline kind of makes my lips itchy.
I am 14 and I have had the problem for the past 2 years and I found that Trimovate cream cures this problem. So if it feels sore just smother the cream on. It has worked for me and if one night it does hurt then I just put it on and it’s fine by morning.