Do You Suffer From Chronic Cracked Lips That Just Don’t Seem To Want To Heal?

Often times cracked lips just don’t seem to heal.  Or they heal, but quickly reappear.  When that is the case, the majority of the time there are unknown factors at work that prevent healing.  We can show you how to get those cracked lips to heal within a couple days. You may have read one of Dr. Kurthy’s magazine articles or heard him interviewed on the radio about curing cracked lips.

Dr. Kurthy takes these annoying and uncomfortable problems quite seriously, and has done in-depth research for cures and prevention that really works.  We can help.

Below is Dr. Kurthy’s original manuscript published by Oxygen magazine

Dealing With Cracked Lips

Here's a pretty common problem, especially for you outdoorsy people.

by Rodger Kurthy, D.M.D.

The lips are not covered by typical skin.  The lining of the lips is very thin and fragile.  Often environmental conditions such as prolonged exposure to sun, dry air (low humidity), heat, cold, and wind can cause the lips to dry and crack.  These conditions cause the lips to become more fragile and loose protective natural moisturizers (oils).  The weakened thin outer layer of the lips then becomes brittle and cracks.

Then what do we naturally do?  That's right, we lick our lips to moisten them -- and this makes it even worse.  Unfortunately, even though saliva soothes momentarily, it removes even more oils rather than moistening them.  This makes the lips and surrounding skin even more dry and irritated.

To treat or prevent cracked lips, your should anticipate these adverse conditions that make your lips prone to cracking.  Cover your lips with a long-lasting, non-water based lip balm.  If you're going to be in the sun, use a product with a strong sun block.  There are many good products on the market -- use the one you like best and lasts the longest for you.  The lip balm prevents your lips' natural moisture from being lost and prevents the moisture from your tongue from getting on your lips.  Now the thin covering of your lips can heal and become flexible again.

But be careful, don't get hooked on lip balm.  Nature did not intend for your lips to always be covered with lip balm.  By using lip balm too often, your lips may produce less of the natural conditioners needed for your lips to stay healthy.

How often have you had cracked lips that did not respond to the above directions and kept re-cracking for weeks or even months? 

This can happen anywhere on the lips, but is most common in the corners of the mouth

and the center of the lower lip.

It is said that chronically cracked lips can be caused by a vitamin B deficiency, but I think it most often is caused by a yeast or fungal infection.  The mouth naturally has yeast-like organisms.  When your lips crack, these yeasts often find a home in the cracks.  The body's natural defenses do try to heal the cracks, but the yeasts then grow back into the area and cause the healing crack to reopen.  I've often seen patients complain of prolonged cracking of lips, and I have even treated patients who have suffered from chronically cracked lips for years.

My patients with chronically cracked lips have usually responded very well to the following treatment:  With clean hands, apply an over-the-counter vaginal yeast cream to the lip crack (the one-day treatment type seems to work the best).  After gentle application of the anti-yeast cream, apply a long-lasting lip balm or Vaseline to protect the area.  Apply the yeast cream three times a day, and keep lip balm or Vaseline covering the area continuously.  Continue this routine for one week after the crack is completely healed.  At this time discontinue the yeast cream and slowly wean off of the lip balm.

If you are prone to having cracked lips that heal slowly, use the above routine each time you develop a new lip crack to prevent delayed healing.

The following is a letter I received from the patient you see above with the crack in the middle of the lower lip: