Abstract
This series of three papers reviews the causes, diagnosis and differential diagnosis, and outlines the management of sore and/or swollen lips.
From Volume 44, Issue 1, January 2017 | Pages 70-74
This series of three papers reviews the causes, diagnosis and differential diagnosis, and outlines the management of sore and/or swollen lips.
Lesions on the lips can be disfiguring and of serious aesthetic concern to patients, and may herald usually local or sometimes systemic diseases. Most important for the clinician is not only to give an early diagnosis, providing an accurate treatment, but mainly to distinguish which lesions are malignant or potentially malignant.
The diagnosis of sore/swollen lips is based mainly on:
A history of exposure to violence, caustic foods/liquids, wind or solar radiation or cosmetic and food allergens, drugs, social and travel history, close contact with patients or animals infected with various microbial agents, can help the diagnosis.
A lesion's location and clinical characteristics are very useful tools for the diagnosis. The location of some cheilitis is unique, the commissures, for example, are the characteristic involvement sites for angular cheilitis.1 Other findings, such as a widespread exfoliation, a characteristic of exfoliative cheilitis,2 or a mucopurulent discharge of glandular cheilitis may help.3,4 The presence of similar lesions in the mouth and lips are characteristics of plasma cell cheilitis5 and lesions on the skin and other mucosae are usually seen in atopic6 and actinic prurigo cheilitis.7
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