Six Common Causes of Lip Sores

By Dr. Denice Moffat  Updated 2/16/23

Comment from my mailbox: Hi Dr. Moffat –I just wanted to let you know that my lips cracking in the corners are all healed up today!  Looks like the call on the lip balm was perfect — I started using mint lip balm from Trader Joe’s after I got your message on Monday. The little bumps on the upper edge of my lip is also gone and the corners aren’t all puffy anymore either. Thanks again for testing that for me.  The fact that it wasn’t healing was driving me nuts. Sheila.

Sheila was having a couple different challenges with lip sores. Because they were not responding, she kept trying new things. We found several things she was using occasionally and a couple of things she was using more consistently that she was allergic to.

This is a common thing that people do for both themselves and their pets (trying lots of products when something isn’t working, then not knowing which products are causing the problem.) Unfortunately sometimes this only makes the problem worse and difficult to decipher—unless you use muscle testing which is what we did.

In general though here are some tips for Lip Sores:

1)     People are often allergic to products containing petroleum and even some products labeled “hypoallergenic” cause lip sores. Occasionally people are allergic to their toothpaste and more often to their lipstick/lip balm. Many people are allergic to Neosporin and Chap Stick. Man oh man, do I ever get lip sores from some of these things! I recommend Mentholatum Natural Ice Lip Balm often. It comes in tube, like Chap Stick. There are also homeopathic remedies to detox the body of what it is allergically responding to.

2)    Lip Sores on the outside corners of the mouth are usually vitamin deficiencies—especially vitamin B6.

3)    Lip Sores on the top and bottom lip edge are often allergies to something being put on the lips and often this can be aggravated by sunshine.

4)    Lip sores like canker sores, herpes sores and cold sores are often related to what it is in the person’s life that they are “biting their tongue” about or not saying out loud (this is a big one and you can resolve the sore within a day or two if you just speak your truth. It can also be caused by excess stress, poor diet, not enough raw foods, and sleep issues (in combination of course).

5)    Lip Sores inside the lip and under the tongue can sometimes be viral in origin or an allergy to something. I know a few people who are allergic to nutmeg which causes a little vesicle to form under the tongue on the frenulum.

6)    Lip sores that look white are usually caused from yeast (Candida). Try getting a lip product that contains Myrrh essential oil. You will also have incorporate lifestyle changes to overcome the yeast inside your system. These white areas can also be on the gums.

7)   Cancerous Lip sores: These lip sores start out small, they don’t seem to go away and they don’t seem to heal. If not treated, they can turn into cancer (lip carcinoma). Catch these early and if you have any questions about what these sores are see your dermatologist.

Cats get lip sores too! Feline Eosinophilic Granuloma (FEG) in a cat’s lover lip. First it looks swollen then it gets ulcerated–and it stays that way. No helping these without some “real drugs”. My best results have been from Depo-Medrol (20mg dose) given twice. Exactly a month interval between injections. If you miss the second shot just forget it. It won’t go away. The only reason I’m giving a dosage here is that I had a medical doctor give “just one ml–what can it hurt, right” but the dose was 100mg. He basically killed his cat with a steroid overdose which shut down the adrenal glands permanently in the poor thing.

Lip sores – Feline Eosinophilic Granulomatosis (FEG)

Oh, and here’s a common lip thing in older people,  the black dot on the lip which is an oral melanotic macule (also called labial melanotic macule or lenticule). These are non-cancerous (benign):

Picture reference for Melanotic macule:  https://www.dermnet.org.nz/lesions/lentigines.html

I hope those clues can empower you to figure out the cause of the most common lip sores. Sometimes they make your lips itch, they can make you feel ugly, and you certainly don’t want to kiss anybody! We don’t want that for you as loving yourself is the most important thing you can do for your family and your planet! 

Helpful Links and References about Lip Sores:

• Canker sore resource: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000998.htm