red circular lesions on upper lip

I've had three adjoining small red circular lesions on the edge of my upper lip for the past month. It started with one, now there are three and it looks like another one is starting. It looks like they are eroding the lip surface.No crusting, they look like little craters on my lips. Searching online I can't find anything that describes what this might be. Help?

[BhumikaMD]

Hi,

I think there are some possibilities there. Dry lips, bacterial infection, vitamin deficiencies, or Fungal infection such as Tinea facialis are some of the possibilities.

Dry lips occur when the rate of loss of water from the skin has increased. It can be prevented by keeping the skin moist and then protecting it with a layer of jelly.

Bacterial infections may occur on top of a dried lip or may occur due to a loss of upper layer of the skin and subsequent infection.

Vitamin deficiencies may occur in the form of Glossitis and angular stomatitis due to unbalanced diets and needs to be rectified by the appropirate vitamins and nutrients.

Finally Tinea is a form of fungal infection which may affect skin on the face leading to development of circular lesions of fungal infection. This may need oral and local antifungal medication.

You should try and get this diagnosed from a dermatologist and then appropirately treated by them too.

I hope this helped. Let me know if you would need more information

[Vanessa Lacuesta]

Hi

This may be a bacterial infection or a fungal infection. If a discharge is present, you may have samples of the discharge cultured or gram stained to determine if an underlying infection is present. If you have previous history of allergies or eczema, then this may also be a strong differential. Apply miconazole gel on the affected areas. You may use the gel twice daily for 3 days. See if this would help. If redness and swelling occurs stop the medications. Have this assessed by your physician if the skin conditions persists.

Avoid hot beverages, spicy food and smoking if applicable. Drink plenty of water and eat well.

[hammer2]

Thanks for the information in the responses to my message. I'll try the miconazole gel and see if any improvement. I was wondering if the lesions might be viral similar to a cold sore. Doesn't look like a cold sore, it is flat and has a mosaic look with very small adjacent lesions. Seemed to come out of nowhere with the first spot.

[driller125]

Hi - did you get to the bottom of this - I have something similar and driving me nuts.