Sore, cracked, sometimes crusted corners of the mouth that sting when you open wide — that's angular cheilitis. It's driven by trapped saliva plus yeast or bacteria, and it responds well once you treat both the microbes and the moisture.
Angular cheilitis is inflammation at one or both corners of the mouth, where pooled saliva keeps the skin damp and lets candida yeast or bacteria overgrow. It causes redness, cracking, crusting and soreness. Treatment pairs an antifungal or antibacterial cream with a barrier ointment, plus fixing whatever lets saliva pool there.
The corners of the mouth form a natural crease where saliva collects — especially during sleep, with lip-licking habits, or when the facial structure lets the corners fold in (age-related volume loss, ill-fitting dentures, or braces in teens). Constantly damp skin breaks down, and the normal residents of the mouth — candida yeast, sometimes staph bacteria — colonize the cracked skin and keep it inflamed.
Angular cheilitis (also called perlèche or angular stomatitis) can affect anyone, but it's more common in older adults with dentures, people with iron or B-vitamin deficiency, diabetes, dry mouth, eczema, or after courses of antibiotics or oral steroids. It typically affects both corners; a single stubborn one-sided crack that never heals deserves closer attention.
Treat the microbe and the moisture together. An over-the-counter antifungal cream (clotrimazole or miconazole) applied to the corners two to three times daily addresses the usual yeast component; if it's clearly not helping after a week, a bacterial cause is more likely and a clinician can prescribe an antibacterial ointment such as mupirocin. After the medicated cream absorbs, seal the corners with a plain barrier — petroleum jelly or zinc-oxide ointment — to keep saliva off the healing skin, and reapply before sleep.
Then remove the cause: break the lip-licking habit, treat chapped lips, have loose dentures refitted and clean them nightly (dentures harbor candida), and consider blood tests for iron and B vitamins if cheilitis keeps recurring. Most cases improve within one to two weeks once both halves of the problem are addressed.
The most common self-treatment mistake is treating angular cheilitis as simple chapping. Plain balm protects the surface but does nothing about the yeast or bacteria living in the crack — so it improves briefly and relapses. Worse, constantly reapplying flavored balms can add a contact-irritation component. The winning combination is boring but reliable: an antifungal (or antibacterial) cream to clear the microbes, a bland barrier ointment to keep saliva out, and fixing the anatomical or habit-based reason saliva pools there in the first place.
We use established public-health and dermatology references and link them directly so you can verify the guidance and read further.
Pooled saliva keeps the corner creases damp, the skin breaks down, and candida yeast or bacteria colonize the cracks. Contributing factors include lip licking, dentures, deep corner creases, iron or B-vitamin deficiency and diabetes.
Apply an OTC antifungal cream (clotrimazole or miconazole) 2–3 times daily, seal with petroleum jelly afterwards and before sleep, and stop licking your lips. Most cases improve within one to two weeks; switch to a prescription antibacterial if there's no progress after a week.
Essentially no — it's an overgrowth of microbes already living around your own mouth, not something you catch or pass on through kissing or shared cups the way cold sores are.
Sometimes. Iron, riboflavin (B2), B12 and folate deficiency all predispose to it, particularly when cheilitis is recurrent or stubborn. One-off mild episodes are more often just moisture plus yeast.
Angular cheilitis is a crack or raw split sitting exactly in the corner crease, usually both sides. A cold sore is a cluster of blisters that ulcerates and crusts, usually at one spot on the lip border, often with a tingling warning. The distinction matters because treatments differ completely.
Scan a photo — RashScan helps distinguish angular cheilitis from cold sores and dermatitis in about a minute.
Scan cracked mouth cornersEducational guidance only — not a medical diagnosis.