Do you find that your lips tend to develop a white film? If so, you probably want to know more about what causes this, whether it’s harmful, and how you can stop it from occurring.
White stuff on your lips can be caused by many different issues. A lot are not worrying, but a few, like oral thrush, may require you to improve your oral care or get a checkup with your doctor. Sometimes, a white film is just dead skin cells forming.
Why Do I Get White Stuff On My Lips?
There are quite a few reasons that you might get white stuff on your lips. One of the more serious ones is oral thrush, and this will result in a horrible taste, and a sticky white film forming on your lips every morning.
It’s an infection that is caused by an imbalance in the bacteria in your body. It is caused by the candida fungus getting out of balance. This can happen for many different reasons, but it may be a sign that you aren’t cleaning your teeth as often or as thoroughly as you should be.
Oral thrush is unpleasant and can spread fast, so you need to see a dentist if you have this condition. They will help you to address it and give you advice on how to prevent it going forward. They may advise changes to your diet, a better mouth care routine, or other alterations.
Oral thrush is a very uncomfortable condition, so you are likely to know if you have it. If the white stuff on your lips is not unpleasant or uncomfortable, it is likely not oral thrush.
What Else Causes White Stuff On Your Lips?
A few other things can also cause a buildup of white stuff on the lips. One simple explanation is that your lips are shedding dead skin, and this is getting stuck in your saliva and making a white line of dead skin cells.
Remember that your lips are just like the rest of your skin and they shed in the same way that all of your body does. However, because they lack oil glands and sweat glands, they may shed more, because the skin is drier. This happens particularly where your lips touch, due to the friction in this area.
Because they only cover a small part of your body, you may never have thought about this before, but it happens to everyone.
This is annoying, but not dangerous or uncomfortable. You may find that you can mitigate the appearance of this white film by applying a daily lip scrub. This will both help to moisturize your lips and gently exfoliate them, removing the dead skin so that it doesn’t build up along the line of your lips.
Another alternative explanation is that you are dehydrated. This can make your saliva thicker and stickier, and this will result in it clinging to your lips in the form of a white line. This usually happens around the point where your lips touch, because this is where the saliva tends to gather.
When you drink more, your saliva is thinner and more watery, and therefore has less chance of sticking to your lips and causing a buildup on them. If you find you get white stuff on your lips, the best thing to try first is increasing the amount of water that you drink to reduce this sort of buildup.
Can Lipstick Or Lip Gloss Cause White Stuff On My Lips?
Quite a lot of people find that lipstick and lip gloss cause white stuff to appear in a line on their lips, which may be surprising, especially if you are using a colored lipstick or a tinted lip gloss. It’s annoying and undoes all the work you have done in making up your lips.
There are a few theories about why lip paints tend to create a white buildup on the lips, as well as a few solutions. Some people think that the lip gloss/lipstick mixes with the saliva and forms a crust along the line of your lips, while others think that it’s residue from the makeup itself.
Whichever is the case, the best way to avoid this sort of buildup is to apply a little bit less lipstick and to avoid the line of your lips where it normally forms. This tends to be where your lips touch, so it shouldn’t be too obvious that you have not painted this line.
A lot of women recommend either going around the line, or using some tissue to absorb any excess lipstick or lip gloss from that area. If you drink water, you may also find that drying your lips gently afterward helps to prevent the white stuff from forming.
How Do You Make A Lip Scrub?
If you don’t want to buy a lip scrub, you can make one yourself at home. All you need is some powdered sugar and some olive oil or food-grade coconut oil. You should gently rub this into your lips, and the sugar will help to lift and remove the excess skin, while the oil will moisturize your lips and lock moisture into the skin.
If you do this once or twice per day and improve your hydration, you should find that the white film disappears. However, this will not combat more serious issues like thrush, so you will need to talk to your doctor or your dentist if you think the white stuff on your lips is caused by thrush.
Don’t ignore white stuff on your lips, because it is a sign that something is amiss or at least slightly out of balance.
Conclusion
White stuff on your lips has a whole range of causes, and if it tastes bad, you should see a dentist as soon as possible. However, if it is just a harmless white film, you can reduce its appearance by limiting how much lip gloss you apply in that area, and making sure you drink plenty of water each day.
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