Symptoms of Angular Cheilitis

Angular cheilitis is a fungal or bacterial infection that causes painful sores to appear at the corners of the mouth and then slowly spread across the mouth and lips. They resemble cold sores at first, but these sores are much more painful and last much longer. They are caused by saliva accumulating at the corners of the mouth, although there are a number of factors that can help contribute to a breakout. This infection can affect anyone regardless of their age or gender.

Symptoms of Angular Cheilitis

Angular cheilitis looks just like a cold sore at first. In fact, many people simply assume that they've developed a bad cold sore and go about treating it as such. You'll start to notice some general redness around the corners of your mouth, and you may notice that the skin of your lips near the corners of your mouth starts to crack and split. Again, though, this is normal with a cold sore. However, after a week or more, they will start to notice that this cold sore is slowly spreading across their mouth. These sores may start to form crusts and ulcerations at this point. Eventually, they will stretch across your entire mouth if you do not get them treated.

The sores do more than just make you embarrassed to go out in public. They can be very painful, and in some cases, they may even split open and start to pus. You need to be very careful since this can leave the body open to even more infections. Once you've noticed that the symptoms of a cold sore are not going away and seem to be getting worse, it's important to get to your doctor right away. While angular cheilitis can be cured fairly quickly with the right medication, it can last for months if it's allowed to go untreated.

Treatment

Dealing with angular cheilitis is fairly easy once you've been diagnosed. Your doctor will generally prescribe a topical gel, either an anti-fungal or a topical steroid, for you to put on the sores. You simply continue this method for about two weeks. Another type of medication involves pills. You simply put these pills in your mouth and let them dissolve. You do this four or five times a day until the infection is cleared up. Both methods are very successful, although as prescription medication, they can be somewhat expensive.

An Alternative Treatment

While there are a number of different topical creams and pills out there that can be used to cure angular cheilitis, almost all of them require you to go to a doctor and get a prescription. This can get expensive, especially if you find yourself dealing with angular cheilitis on a regular basis (and, unfortunately, some people do). However, there is a new and all natural cure out there than can help you. This cure will work very quickly and has been proven to be incredibly successful. You can learn all about it at the website below.