Every year, millions of people suffer from angular cheilitis, also known as cheilosis or angular stomatitis or perleche, but often misspelled as angular chelitis.
According to wikipedia, studies have indicated angular cheilitis to be a result of nutritional deficiencies (such as Vitamin B1, Vitamin B12 and iron) and occurs frequently with elderly people who experience a loss of vertical dimension due to loss of teeth, thus allowing for over-closure of the mouth.
There is a lesser form of cheilosis that occurs mainly when the temperature is low (e.g. winter time) with young children and teenagers being the main sufferers.
Typical symptoms experienced by angular cheilitis sufferers include the following:
- Sores at both corners of the lips and mouth
- Painful splits of the skin at the corner and inside of the mouth
- Bleeding sometimes occurs when opening the mouth
There is no connection between angular cheilitis and herpes / cold sores.
While the legions are difficult to hide and sufferers will do anything to get rid of the embarrassment, cheilosis is not a life threatening condition.
Having said this, a contagious oral fungal infection called Candida (also known as oral thrush) can develop inside the mouth of an angular cheilitis sufferer, characterised with a whitish coating on the tongue if the condition is not contained.
Many angular cheilosis sufferers experience attacks a few times a year, each lasting months. The even more unfortunate ones suffer with the condition seemingly on a permanent basis.
When consulted, doctors will typically prescribe a 1% hydro cortisone topical cream. This treatment unfortunately has proven to be ineffective and does little to ease the symptoms resulting in many angular cheilitis patients having to tolerate the painful condition.
The good news is that there are treatment alternatives of which the majority of cheilosis sufferers are not aware of. Such treatment alternatives can be found simply by searching online using the different names that angular cheilitis is known as.
For instance, there is a safe, simple and painless method that controls and kills the Candida bacteria merely by isolating this fungal bacteria and creating an environment they cannot survive in. This method is surprisingly inexpensive for an angular cheilitis sufferer and makes use of common household items.
