Nobody likes to have chapped lips. Not only are dry, cracked lips painful, it's also irritating and embarrassing to have. Most people may experience having a passing case of chapped lips, but some get to have a more severe form termed Angular Stomatitis. Angular Stomatitis has many causes, including those from bacterial and fungal infections. This condition is also known as Angular Cheilitis, Angular Cheilosis, and Perleche.

You can tell if you already have Angular Stomatitis if the corners of your lips start to crack or form fissures, accompanied with a swelling and redness around the area. It may be tender and sore to touch, and may later on develop into ulcers that bleed or even discharge pus if not treated immediately.

An onset of a case of Angular Stomatitis can cause moderate to severe pain in any activity involving the use of the mouth or lips such as eating, drinking, conversing, smiling, laughing, most facial gesticulations, and even yawning. Such activities can be stifled to the point of being a source of extreme nuisance and irritation. Children, teenagers, and older people suffer most when having this condition, as their eating habits get strongly affected, with majority of them getting inadequate nutrition due to the limited intake of solid food and liquids. When the sores begin to crust and scab, the skin tends to become itchy.

The condition can be properly diagnosed by a physician or dentist. In the case of older people, a dentist can take a look at their dentures to see if it isn't ill-fitting, since ill-fiitng dentures causes an overbite that causes an improper support of the jaw muscles in chewing and like actions of the mouth. This results in the pooling of salliva in the folds of the lips where the moisture invites the proliferation of bacteria and yeast causing fungus. A blood test to determine if an immune system deficiency may also be done to establish a deficiency in B vitamins and the mineral iron, which are also known causes of Angular Stomatitis.

Angular Stomatitis can be treated effectively in many ways in relation to its root cause. The important thing to remember is once it starts, the first thing to do is to get a proper medical opinion in order to know how to go about getting treated in the most effective way possible.