CAUSES OF SWOLLEN LIPS

I'm a 16-year-old girl, and lately I've had this strange swelling on my top lip, middle area. I've had this for about 8 hours, in which I have slept in between. Before this happened, as dumb as it may sound, I popped a pimple before I washed my face and went to sleep. I had noticed though, before I went to bed, that my upper lip had swollen. I didn't think anything of it because I thought it would only be swollen for a little bit because of the pressure I used. But I woke up, and my lip is STILL swollen. My aunt gave me an allergy (not benadryl),just less than an hour ago. If this doesn't help, I'll use an ice pack. If not, then I'm really worried about what I should do. Also, on my birthday (which was on the 16th), I lost my voice before any of this happened, and it's barely coming back...

Can anyone tell me what's wrong? Or what's causing this- An allergic reaction? As far as I know, I didn't eat anything out of the ordinary. And I only drink water; I haven't had any juice lately. Please help. Thanks.

I am a concerned mother who has noticed that for the past 2 weeks me and my 10 year daughter's lip have been swelling uo occasionally at different times, I keep trying to figure out what could be the cause but I can't seem to figure out what the problem is. I don't think it has anything to do with what we're eating. Could it be something in our house that we're allergic to??

I feel the same thing. I don't know where you live, but here in the DC area, the weather has been so bad. It's freezing and windy, which already makes lips dry and chapped.
As far as the swelling goes, my lips have been swelling up a little for about two weeks. Nothing worse though - they don't turn red, nor do i get thsi "ring" around my mouth. And, typically, I have a lot of things wrong with my lip. I get mouth herpes at least twice a year, so I know 100% what it feels like when it's coming, and this swelling is definitely not it. In the winter time the corners of my mouth also crack sometimes, probably because of the weather. I put chopstick on the cracked parts often, and it goes away after a few days.
This swelling, however, is rare. But after reading some posts, i've made some connections.
-when i eat a lot of food at once with salt or salty/spicy things on top, my lips swell just a little bit. For example, during movie nights, I like to get tortilla chips and dip them in cheese, and eat all throughout the movie, but i stop eating before i really want to stop because i feel my lips swelling up from the salt on the chips. Also, recently i've been eating sunflower seeds almost every night, and I'm also sure this is what's contributing to my swelling. The salt on the shell of the sunflower lips always being in contact with the lip, plust the bad winter weather is making my lips swollen.
-And it seems like most of what people are saying in posts is food related / allergy related. So think about what you eat, or most importantly what comes in contact with your mouth. do you have pets that lick your face and then you go outside in the cold weather? That might be it.

Anyways, i've been putting regular chopstick on my lips all day everyday and it doesn't' really help. Since i've just figure out the whole sunflower seeds thing, i'm gonna lay off them for a while and see if it helps. Oh and i put Vaseline on my lips at night, and it doesn't really help either. (and everyone said earlier that Vaseline is the only thing that helps, which makes me think it's truly food related).

Ok, enough rambling from me.

Thanks!

Hi well the same issue has happened to me!

last night I was over at a friends house, and I was really craving sugar for some reason! I ate peanut butter ice cream, and some chocolate cake. Later on when I went home, I put some MINT CHAPSTICK on right before I went to bed, because I couldn't find my MOISTURIZING Chapstick... The weather has been pretty cold lately, and my lips have been so dry so I've been using lots of chapstick. Also even before I went to my friends house, I went to church and I used some MINT lipgloss...

I went to sleep and this morning my lips are HUGE, red and puffy...BEEstung/botox looking lips. both the top and bottom. My lips feel really weird.

I've never had any issues with mint products, so this is really weird to me...

This has never happened to me before. Im not allergic to peanut butter or chocolate syrup or chocolate cake...I have eaten it before, but not in icecream....also I heard there's an outbreak of salmonella in peanutbutter or something? Would that cause swollen lips? Im really stumped - Any Ideas would be appreciated!

I thought my daughter and I were the only people having this problem with our lips. She is 24, I am 53. We dont share or use same makeup, hair products, the only common thing relating us to this problem is we both got a skin abrasion from both falling, but a year apart and in completely different places. My lip issue started months after i got itches/hives from neck down while my abrasion was healing from being infected. This all started with me Oct of 07. Daughter fell Halloween of 08, arm got a bit infected from abrasion, but healed on its own. I had to get on anti biotics for the abrasion and prednisone for my hives. Our both abrasions healed nicely. Daughter started with lip tingling, burning, a few tiny blisters along lip line. Both our lips started with tingling/pin prick feelings along lip line.

I have had physical, tested for everying, herpes, std's even HIV. All normal, in perfect health doc says. Five doctors have seen me with this problem, no one can figure it out. Went to allergist last week--did food alergy testing---not allergic to any foods. Going back to do patch test for contact allergies. Since last Wed my lips were almost back to norm, other than some tingling. Today, Saturday, woke with greater tingling, burning, and through the day has gotten worse, lips feel thick, lip line was very chapped. Now typing this, my lips are weeping and I can see little beads of oozing all over lips. I wish there was some way to be able to contact people on here. Im tgrisler@ hotmail. Any kind of interaction with others would be so great and helpful. Thank you T

Woke up this morning at 4am to 9 year old son complaining of swollen eye and lips. Chest felt tight also. he has had past episodes of this along with mosquito bite hives. benadryl along with ibuprofen helped and L-Lysine tablets 500mg. Gave him these again. Read all your previous posts. noticed that a similarity to the fact that stress in myself can cause a herpes reaction in the mouth area, starts with tingling, hotness and then swelling. There is an amino acid Arginine, I can't remember if it is found in peanut butter, but I know that when I eat too rich (wine, chocolate, sugar -- it all stresses your body out, and not enough water) I get a break out. Take a tablet as soon as you feel the tightness or tingling. Something strange also was the fact that I took a flu shot 2 years ago and so did my niece who lives 200 miles away from me and we both broke out in shingles. Doctors said it was due to stress on the body. The good thing about mine was I took L-Lysine 500mg(found at any drugstore) and the doctor was amazed that it cleared up in a week's time. I still have the scars though. I hope this helps everyone. Even though you may not believe you have the herpes virus it is hidden in our bodies from when we had chickenpox and reappears when under stress. Good Luck.

I have had this problem twice last fall and just two weeks ago another episode...same symptoms: lips swell, crack and peel and the "clown" lip outline. Tip of tongue also gets numb and tingly. Family doctor said it was contact dermatitis and prescribed benadryl. I'd been eating a lot of Clementine oranges and also Pepperidge Farm extra cheddar "Fish". The salty coating definitely irritates my lips. But if it is an allergic reaction, you would think that it would affect more than the lip and tongue area.

I'm wondering if it could be like a chemical burn...two substances reacting together to essentially "burn" the skin like you would if you had a sunburn? The salty coating on the "fish" or some other substance reacts with a chemical in my toothpaste and creates an acid which burns the lips but not the throat as it is diluted??

Just thinking out loud...it is such a bizarre thing to experience these "Jolie" lips.

Hi there, i have the same problem as you or so it seems.This a.m. I have woken up with lips like sherman clump.I have been diagnosed with a condition called (ANGEO DEMA).which is linked to allergies,immune system,I take 1 pill per day telfast 180mg.sometimes i need 2.
However i still do not know what the cause is nor does my immunolagist If your tongue or throat swells you must go straight to A&E.Hope this has shed a little light.[/u][/b]

I have had (off and on since Dec) swollen, tingly and sever chapped and burning lips. At times they get a red burning ring around the outside of the lips. 3 times they have blistered looking like chicken pox on the lips. The entire surface of top and bottom lip will peel and ooze! It is embarrasssing. Then about 3 wks ago I herniated a disc in my back and they put me on heavy doses of prednisone for 15 days! It cleared up for the 1st time looking normal!! But now a week after being off the prednison, it is coming back! The red ring around the lips, severe tight, burning feeling! I use aquafor on them non stop. (It is the best thing I have found) I have been told that I have an undiagnosed connective tissure/autoimmune disorder... hmmm I am thinking that this lip thing is autoimmune. Has anyone read anything about Hoshimotos? This is so frustrating... please keep up the posts so we can all figure this thing out!

I have had the same symptoms that everyone on here has written about. My lips felt pretty dry about a month and a half ago, so i put on chapstick...and almost overnight my lips were really dry and flaky and nothing seemed to help it. i tried burts bees, olive oil, vaseline...they would get really crusty and when i would scratch parts off, it seemed to ooze liquid...

since this had NEVER, i mean, NEVER had happened to me before...i thought maybe it was just a one off thing...

then it happened again this week! i have been doing research all night and i am seeing the dermatologist tomorrow, cause its so embarassing! i dont even want to leave my apartment.

i have been trying to think what i have been doing differently, and i cant not come to a conclusion. the one thing i have thought about is that i bought trident awhile ago and chewed it...then found a piece either the begining of this week or end of last week and chewed it...and low and behold my lips freak out. i NEVER chew trident, so i looked up the ingredients and the one different ingredient is the sugar substitute -xylitol.
looking more into it - it could cause an allergic reaction.

so hopefully thats what it is? we shall see what the dermatologist has to say.