What Is Angular Cheilitis?
Angular cheilitis (perleche) is a condition of redness, burning, and irritation in the corners of the mouth.
What Causes It?
Angular Cheilitis is usually caused by our jowls creating a crevice near the corners of the mouth, which allows moisture, yeast, and bacteria to accumulate. This in turn causes inflammation.
Treatment
To fix this problem permanently requires a face lift. You can fix it temporarily with a cosmetic filler. Obviously both are expensive and not covered by insurance.
So to fix this problem when it flares, I recommend you buy the following three items over the counter:
- 1% hydrocortisone
- To reduce inflammation and irritation
- Dr Dan’s Corticobalm is a good one
- Try not to use for more than 7 days in a row
- Neosporin
- To reduce bacteria, especially moisture-loving Pseudomonas
- If you are allergic to neomycin, just get polysporin instead
- Anti-yeast cream that ends in “-azole”
- This would be clotrimazole, miconazole, etc.
Mix all three of these, either by dabbing each on the corners of your mouth one after the other (order doesn’t matter) OR by mixing them on your fingertip and then applying it.
Do this 2–3 (or more) times per day until it is improved.
Next Steps
After it is improved, you can either set those medicines aside until it flares up again or you can use diaper rash cream at night to prevent moisture from accumulating. Diaper rash cream is really good for this but you do have to wipe it off in the morning because it is white.
If it doesn’t respond at all to the above regimen, we would need to consider vitamin level testing or taking a multivitamin for a month to see if it improves.
Remember: This Is NOT A Cure
I don’t usually tell people that I cure this, because I don’t permanently get rid of the skin fold problem and focus on controlling flare-ups.