Raw lips that won't heal

[curtid33]

Hello, I am 14 years old and i have this problem with my lips. It started in the middle of July when I had lost my vaseline for 3 days. My lips went without anything on them for this time and became dry and chapped. I did not like how they looked and i decided to exfoliate with warm water and a toothbrush. I noticed that i may have exfoliated to roughly when the skin grew back and would become white with water. I had brought some blistex because i wanted to find a cure to this. This failed and i went to carmex, nivea, vaseline, aquaphor, and currently neosporin lip renewal and olive oil. When the skin on my lips grows back it becomes very thick and i peel it off it feels raw and painful. Will this new skin growth on my lip absorb into regular lip skin after some time?(so far i've left most of it on for 5 days) Or is this going to fall off after a time and reveal healthy skin underneath?

[guyevans7]

Hello there. I have been dealing with raw lips for the last 5 months. In April of 2020 the skin on my lips became very crusty and eventually all peeled off. For the next 5 months I was put on all sorts of medication and I had patch tests, a biopsy and a blood test done to find out what was the problem. All of the tests came back negative. I ended up using vaseline everyday which made my lips look better and I became confident enough to start seeing my friends again. In October 2020, I saw a professor in London who said that the vaseline doesn't actually help and all it does is just cover up the bacteria beneath it. The professor diagnosed me with exfoiliative cheilitis which is a form of eczema. She had dealt with a lot of patients who have had this and she says it is 100% fixable. She has prescibed me this medication called Protopic and I have to use it twice a day for the next six weeks and hopefully my lips will have fully healed by then. I will let you guys know if it is a success. I would honestly not wish this upon anyone, I have been so depressed for the last few months and this professor may just have saved my life.

Kind Regards

Guy Evans

[Jw11450]

Did you ever get it figured out? I have been having the same problem for 3 years

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
It looks like oral thrush. Thrush appears as white patches in the mouth. Usually they can be seen on the tongue, inside the cheeks, under the tongue, lips and in the back of the throat. I suggest you to get an examination done from your doctor and get a KOH examination of the scrapings done of these white coatings.

It is very difficult to precisely confirm a diagnosis without examination and investigations and the answer is based on the medical information provided. For exact diagnosis, you are requested to consult your doctor. I sincerely hope that helps. Take care and please do keep me posted on how you are doing.