Inflammation and Angular Cheilitis

Cheilitis is known under several names,  like angular stomatitis, cheilosis, or perleche.  It is characterized by showing up with crackings and splits in the corner of the mouth.  These lesions are mildly painful, yet the condition is chronic for most of the patients.  The duration can last from a span of days up to months.  In severe cases, the lesions can bleed with opening of the mouth, and a crust can form.  

Angular cheilitis is marked by an inflammation deriving from a fungal transmission, Candida albicans infection. But other pathogens can also be the cause of the disease.  Understanding the process of inflammation, we need to study its pathophysiology.

Inflammation comes from the Latin word inflammare, which means: to set on fire.  It is a complex biological response of vascular tissues to unphysiologic cases, such as infective microorganisms, like viruses and bacteria,  damaged cells, or toxins. With the induction of  an inflammatory action the body attempts to get rid of the inducing cause for the inflammation, as well as start renovate mechanics for the healing process for the tissue. Inflammation should not be mixed-up with infection. Inflammation is very frequently caused by an transmission, but the two are not synonymous: the cause of infection is an exogenic pathogen, but inflammation is one of the responses of the organism to the infection.

Wounds and infections would never cure without an infection, and progressive tissue damage, ultimately organ damage, leading to organ failure and death would be the inescapable consequence.  If the inflammation turns into a long-term status, a ground for new problems is prepared, leading to diseases like asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, atherosclerosis etc. or in this case cheilitis.  Therefore our body controls and governs an inflammatory process closely, so overdrive and overkill are banned and additional damage is out of the way.  

As we have seen, we have to differentiate inflammation as acute or chronic.  The acute inflammation is an initial response of the body to tissue damage caused by foreign bodies.  Parallel to this, plasma and leucocytes move from the blood into the affected, injured area with a multitude of biochemical reactions to stabilize the inflammatory response.  The immune system and the local vascular system and some more factors play an important role also when it comes to fend off invading foreign bodies.  

Long-term inflammatory processes are called chronic inflammation, which lead to an inclining shift in the class of cells at the inflammatory site of the affected tissue.  This process is characterized by simultaneous healing and destruction of cells and tissue by the inflammation.

In this context, angular cheilitis is a chronic inflammatory affair for many patients.  The inflammatory attacks keep popping up, with the danger of attracting pathogenic microorganisms, which increase the inflammation, a vicious circle par excellence.   

George F Battlefield is an expert on angular cheilitis cure