The skin area around mouth is very sensitive, so the treatment for pimples on that area is quite challenging. Although, there are available a few over-the-counter treatments to help treating acne breakouts around the mouth, but the best is following good daily cleansing routine that can ward off them for good.
What Causes Pimples Around The Mouth?
If you have clear skin on the rest of your face, the breakouts around mouth are usually caused by following reasons:
(i) Overuse of lip balm, particularly scented and flavored lip balm.
(ii) Toothpaste containing sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) can also cause acne around the mouth.
Treatments For Pimples Around The Mouth
1. Prevention For Bumps Around Mouth: Taking care of your facial skin is a great way to prevent the breaking out around mouth. This includes:
(i) Wash your face every evening using a mild cleanser containing either benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid. These acne-fighting ingredients treat existing pimples, and averting new ones from forming as well. Washing your face also get rid of any surface oils or acne-causing bacteria that have accumulated throughout the day.
Check And Buy Here Best Acne Face Cleansers
(ii) Swipe a toning product over clean skin to tighten pores and stop dirt and oil from entering into the pores.
(iii) Apply an oil-free moisturizer to hydrate your skin and maintain a balanced skin texture.
(iv) And if any breakout around the mouth does occur, immediately spot treat the area as soon as pimples appear by dabbing on a product having benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid to control the breakout.
Check And Buy Here Best Acne Spot Treatment Products
2. Lip Balm And Acne Around Mouth Care Tips: Lip balm, is just one cause of acne around the mouth. Lip balm comes with the tastes of chocolates, scent of Christmas trees, cola, many other fruit flavors and fragrances. They taste good, and moisten your lips and then dry them out after some time. All these are gimmicks to make you addictive. The extent of addiction reaches to such a level that people keep the little tubes of lip balms in their pockets or purse that keeps chanting “Use me……..Use me…..” all the time.
Although, the lip balm is not a problem in itself, but for the fragrance used in the lip balm can stimulates the sebum production on skin around the mouth. Moreover, the wax from the lip balm can clog pores, so the sebum gets trapped under the wax inside skin pores surrounded by dry skin. This inflames the pores that are already clogged, consequently tiny red pimples breakout at the corners of the mouth.
The most obvious way to prevent these nasty zits around mouth is to avoid using lip balm, but if you want to keep using lip balm, go for a type that contains pure wax with no added fragrance or flavorings. Although, this still clogs pores around the mouth but at least it will not inflame them. To reduce the irritation of the skin around the mouth, you can apply aloe vera gel once or twice a day.
Another natural treatment is to keep your lips hydrated by drinking small sips of water throughout the day. If your lips still get cracked, use lip wax. Also you can use a humidifier to keep the air in your home or office moist, so your lips don’t crack.
3. Toothpaste And Acne Around The Mouth Care Tips: Another cause of pimples around the mouth can be toothpaste that you are using. As in the case of lip balms, the flavors and perfumes added to flavored toothpastes can be the culprits for breakouts around the mouth. Many brands of toothpaste have another acne causing ingredient, sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS). Women’s skin is more sensitive to SLS than men’s skin.
Avoiding use of chemical-laden toothpaste is a simple way to prevent acne around the mouth in most cases. But since you don’t want to replace your acne problem with a bad teeth problem, you still have to use toothpaste. So, simply use good brand toothpaste without SLS, flavorings, and fragrances. Also make sure to rinse your skin thoroughly around the mouth after brushing.
Acne Treatment Tips For Acne Around Mouth:
(i) Stopping the use of the wrong brands of lip balms and toothpastes clears up acne altogether in many cases. But you have to know which products are causing problem to make the changes that clear the skin around your mouth.
(ii) Make sure to wash and cleanse all makeup off every night.
4. Use Retinol To Clear Acne: Retinol is a vitamin-A derivative that boost-up the turn-over of the skin cells, so makes it difficult for dead skin cells to clog skin pores resulting into less likelihood of occurrence of breakouts and inflammation around the lips. Simply, apply a very thin layer onto your face every night to treat existing pimples, prevent new ones from occurring and enhance the overall complexion of the skin over time. You can buy retinol over the counter or more powerful kinds that are available only by prescription.
5. Consult Dermatologist: If the above preventive measures and remedies do not improve the conditions of pimples or zits around your mouth, you need to consult a good dermatologist for medical treatments such as prescription-strength topical products, antibiotics to reduce inflammation, hormonal treatments, chemical peels or laser therapy.
Acne Treatment Cautions
(i) Whatever you do, always avoid squeezing pimples, which can cause infections, scarring and further breakouts.
(ii) Along with following above remedies, wear an oil-free daily sunscreen with an SPF of at least 15, since otherwise sun exposure will irritate your skin and contribute to the occurrence of new breakouts.