What causes white bump inside lip? Explore on the reasons for painful, small, big, clear bumps forming inside, on the lower and upper lip.
White Bump inside Lip Meaning
White bumps in your lip may result from different illnesses and health conditions. Numerous types of sores or bumps can appear anywhere in the mouth, but some of the most common places include gums, inner cheeks, bottom of the mouth, tongue and lips.
Bumps usually forms as a response to an allergen, diseases, but they can be sexually transmitted as well. Depending upon the causes, the symptoms may vary from one person to another.
White Bump inside Lip Causes
The following are common causes bumps on lip, inside of lower and upper lip:
Canker Sores
Canker sores are yellow or pale ulcer with a whitish outer ring. Canker sore bumps are painful but are not contagious. Canker sores are usually caused by hormonal changes, a weakened immune system, stress or lack of certain minerals and vitamins in your body.
Treatment: They usually heal on their own, but certain oral medications will help alleviate the pain. Rinsing your mouth will salt water or a mouthwash will also help.
Mucous Cysts
Mucous bumps usually appear on the inner surface of your lips and they do not usually affect the roof or floor of the mouth, inside of the cheek and the tongue. These fluid-filled sacs are painless.
They are often caused by some damage to a salivary duct, which may occur if you have accidentally sucked your lips hard between your teeth. Mouth piercings may also create these cysts.
Treatment: The cysts usually rupture and drain without a treatment, a surgery may help if they don’t disappear after a few days.
Oral Lichen Planus
This is an inflammatory condition that produces white bump inside lip, especially inside of your cheeks and on the sides of your tongue. It is caused by hepatitis C infection, liver disease, certain vaccines, allergies and medications.
Treatment: You can use certain medications, which are antibacterial agents. A laser treatment is also available for Oral Lichen Planus treatment.
Cold Sores
Usually starts as blisters, these sores can sometimes be extremely painful. The blisters stay for some time and then crust thereafter. It is usually caused by the herpes simplex virus and passed from person to person through shared utensils, a kiss or other close contact.
Treatment: Several over the counter drugs may speed healing and alleviate pain as well.
Oral Thrush
This is a yeast infection of the mucus membrane lining of lips and general mouth surface. Candida is a fungus that naturally found in your mouth. If the immune system is weakened and fails to keep it in check, the overgrowth of Candida, leading to thrush.
Treatment: It usually goes away in a few weeks, but eating yogurt and taking medications can accelerate the healing process. Brushing with a diluted 3% hydrogen peroxide solution will help clear a thrush infection. Sometimes your doctor may prescribe stronger medications.
Fordyce Spots
What about white bumps that affect both the lower lip? These could be Fordyce spots which are usually benign and non-infectious. They are usually normal glands that are not characterised with hair follicles and are not a cause for concern but you may need to see your doctor or dermatologist if they are bothersome.
Milia
You could also be having milia which are usually small and pearly-white. They usually resolve by themselves in children but for adults, they may need treatment to get rid of them. The options vary from chemical peels to microdermabrasion surgical removal.
Food Allergy
A bump appear inside your lip due to food allergic reaction, usually caused by eating overly salty, spicy or sour foods. To get rid of bumps caused by allergic reactions, avoid eating spicy food, too hot or too cold.
Injury
Burning by hot food and drinks or other injury like biting by accidents can causes lip lining to be inflamed.
Treatment:
- This kind of bumps can heal on its own with time.
- Over-the-counter pain relievers can soothe your pain.
- These bumps can be avoided by avoiding injuries in the lip lining and be cautious when drink or eat anything hot.
Painful White Bump inside Lip
Contact with some chemicals like mica and titanium are especially known to induce inflammation and irritation of lip mucosa leading to lumpy bumpy appearance of lips along with irritation, burning and peeling of lip. This bumps are usually very painful to withstand. You may need a quick treatment as the feeling is usually hurtful.
Contact allergy can be treated by use of steroids and antihistamines especially if your lip is swollen and you have an inflammation. Furthermore, you can avoid coming in contact with the allergens or allergy causing irritants.
White Bump inside Lip no Pain
A white bump inside lips is usually caused by disruption or blockage in the tiny ducts that connect glands in the lips with the surface of your mouth.
These tiny ducts are sometimes cut and the mucus cannot be transferred properly from the lips to the surface, hence starts spilling into the tissues present under the lining of your mouth. This leads to the formation of painless bumps. It is important to consult a doctor because this bump won’t go away on its own.
White Bump inside Lower Lip
Sometimes it is normal to have white lumps on corner of lips or on the outside lip line. When you have an infection in the mouth, you can easily develop gum pimples and bumps inside lips. If the bump is hard, it could be a cyst that is forming.
In most cases, cysts are caused by an infection or after tooth extraction or a surgical procedure. Normally, if you have a lip piercing, a bump can form around it or on its ring.
Some bumps inside lower lip don’t hurt or cause pain. Hard and recurrent lumps can mean a serious condition, but at the same time they can be harmless. See your doctor for proper examination and treatment.
A white bump inside lip that is lower can be from blocked skin pores leading to acne whiteheads. Treatment often involves oral drugs and cleansers containing salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide, but oral antibiotics may sometimes be required. Tea tree oil is also a common home treatment for acne.
White Bump inside Lip Hurts
Besides having painful bumps or sores on the upper or lower lip, along lip line or lip corner, it is common to have white spot on inside of lip. Just like white dots on any other part of the lip, they could be clustered or singly existing, hurtles or painful, small or larger.
If the white spots on lips under skin are painless or cause no pain, they are likely to be mucous cysts – fluid-filled sac like, milia or Fordyce bumps, fibroma or oral HPV. Milia tend to cause hard small white bump inside lip.
On the other hand, if the white spots on inside of lips are painful, sore, burning or hurts, they are likely to be canker sores, fever blisters, infected lip piercing, and oral thrush which is common in babies and toddlers but can affect adults too and it will tend to cause white sore patches and not dots. Having irritated oral HPV warts can also cause some pain.
To add on that, oral cancer, hairy leukoplakia which commonly appear on the inside bottom lip and trauma can also result to white bump inside lips. It is wise to go for a medical check-up in case your bumps do not go away after two weeks.
White Bump inside Lip Doesn’t Hurt
Bumps that don’t hurt inside your lip are commonly mucous cysts. They will often appear on the inner surface of your lips and do not usually affect other areas in the mouth. These fluid-filled sacs are painless.
Mucous cysts are caused by some damage to a salivary duct, which may occur if you have accidentally sucked your lips hard between your teeth. Mouth piercings also usually may cause these cysts to form inside your lips.
Treatment of mucous cysts
This kind cysts usually may rupture and drain without necessarily treating them, although you may need a surgery, if they do not go away on their own after a few days.
Small white bump inside lip
Small, pimple-like bumps inside your lips can be caused by multiple conditions, such as canker sores, mucous cysts, and oral lichen planus and inflamed mouth lining. Most of these conditions usually resolve on their own, but in some cases medications can relieve some of the accompanying pain and discomfort. See a doctor for an accurate examination if you have pimple-like bumps in your mouth or lip lining.
Cause for small white bump inside lip
Canker sores; are ulcers that usually appear on the base of your gums, tongue, the roof of your mouth and the inner surface of your lips and cheeks. They start as painful, red bumps, then develop into open ulcers with a yellow or white middle. The areas around them are bright red. As the exact cause of canker sores are not known, they are thought to be triggered by hormonal changes, food allergies, menstrual periods, stress and poor diet, and also mouth injuries.
Mucous cysts
Mucous bumps usually appear on the lips’ inner surface. They less commonly affect the inside of the cheeks, roof or floor of the mouth and the tongue. Mucous cysts are usually painless, thin, fluid-filled sacs. They can be caused by damage to a salivary duct, such as trauma caused by sucking your lips between the teeth. Trauma from lip and mouth piercings may also cause mucous cysts to form. They may rupture and drain on their own.
Clear White Bump inside Lip
Mucous cyst, also known as a mucocele, is a clear fluid-filled swelling that occurs on the lip or the mouth.
It usually develops when the mouth’s salivary glands become plugged with mucus. Several of these cysts are on the lower lip, but they can occur anywhere inside your mouth. These bumps are usually temporary and painless. However, cysts can become permanent if they are not treated.
Causes of mucous cyst
Mucous cysts are most commonly caused by trauma that occurs to the oral cavity or lip lining, such as:
- Biting your own lip by accident – main cause
- cheek biting
- lip piercings
- accidental rupture of the salivary gland
- damage from adjacent teeth causing chronic
- Poor dental hygiene and a habit of lip or cheek biting due to stress can also put you at higher risk for developing mucous cysts. Some people develop these cysts as a bad reaction to poor quality toothpaste.
Mucous cysts usually appear to people who are aged between 10 to 25 years. However, these cysts can occur in people of all ages. The condition is equally distributed in both females and male.
Common symptoms of mucous cyst
Symptoms of a mucous cyst vary by how deep the condition is within the skin and how often the cysts occur. Most of these cysts are not painful, but they can be uncomfortable. If they appear frequently, they can become painful over time. They include:
- A raised swelling
- bluish in colour
- softness of the bump
- lesions less than 1 cm in diameter
Symptoms of cysts deeper in the skin:
- rounded in shape
- whitish in colour
- tender to touch
How to Get Rid of White Bump inside Lip
Apthous stomatitis, also commonly known as canker sores, are serious mouth ulcers that have affected most people at some point in their lives. It is not well known what causes these pesky painful spots on the inside of the mouth, although biting your cheek or inside of your lip, braces rubbing, stress, genetics, and a malfunctioning immune response are all possible causes.
Treatment of white bump inside lip
Treatment for white bumps in the lips depends on the cause of the pimple. Some conditions, such as Fordyce spots, do not require any treatment. Moreover, if you do not like the appearance of your Fordyce spots, removal is possible. Doctors can use techniques such as electro- surgery or laser treatments to remove them.
For thrush, it is usually treated with anti-fungal medications, such as a liquid solution you swish in your mouth and swallow.
For oral herpes, antiviral medications can temporarily eliminate your oral herpes symptoms, but they won’t permanently cure the viral infection.
For oral cancers, they require different treatments based on the condition’s severity. Treatments can include surgical removal of the affected lesion, chemotherapy, or radiation to stop the cancer from spreading.
Home remedies for bump inside lip
DIY numbing spray
Peppermint and eucalyptus are essential oil as both have anti-inflammatory properties, while also possibly working as anti-microbial agents that reduce infection, astringents to help tighten the tissues around the wound, relieving further discomfort caused by swelling or potential fluid build-up. They have cooling properties of both of these oils can also numb the nerve endings that are firing off.
Directions
mix the olive or grape seed oil into a glass mister bottle, and add the essential oils. Cap, shake well, and spray some directly onto the canker sore as needed for pain relief.
Chamomile Tea Bag
Chamomile consists of several daisy-like plants that are used to induce sleep, promote relaxation, and help with digestion hence can help relax painful spasms in the digestive track. A chemical compound that has been shown to reduce inflammation and also have antiseptic properties. Also it help reduce the pain of canker sores and potentially help speed the healing process.
Directions
soak the chamomile in water for a minute using a teabag. After soaking place it directly against the sore for around 5 minutes twice daily to help relieve discomfort and promote speedy healing.
Swish Sage
Sage is herb from the evergreen shrub. It used widely in the culinary world, and has also been prevalent in homeopathic medicine and home remedies for years. Has been used to help cleanse the mouth, and to heal the painful ulcers that we now know as canker sores.
Directions
when using dried sage, boil water and allow the herb to infuse for 10 minutes. Swish the water, and the herb, in your mouth for a minute before spitting it out and rinsing with plain cold water.
Coconut Oil
It has anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and is also incredibly tasty. It is also almost fail-safe when it comes to getting rid of white bump inside lip.
Using a clean hand, dab a certain amount of coconut oil on to the bump.
Clove Oil Cotton Ball
Clove oil contains eugenol, a potent painkiller, and has been used by dentists throughout decades to bring relief to patients. It is used in a pure extracted form, for oral pain ranging from toothaches to canker sores.
Directions
swish your mouth with warm water or salt water to get the area clean. Mix the clove oil with the olive oil and then soak a cotton ball in it. Apply the cotton ball directly to the sore for 5-8 minutes for numbing relief.
Honey Rub
Has antibacterial, and potentially anti-inflammatory, properties, raw organic honey makes a wonderfully soothing coating for a painful canker sore.
Directions
Swish some warm water in your mouth, and then apply a thick dab of organic raw honey directly to the white bump inside lip. Reapply 2-3 times daily
Wax Cap
Help reduce irritating friction against the sore and help speed up the healing time. If you place this over braces, it’s important to make it thick enough that it doesn’t just get ground into the brace and stuck.
Directions
Melt down the beeswax and coconut oil and allow the mixture to cool slightly. Then gently press a dollop over the edge of your tooth to protect the canker sore from rubbing.
Cayenne cream
Contains capsaicin, which inhibit something called Substance P, which is responsible for mediating pain responses in the body. Because of this, cayenne makes a great home remedy for canker sores and all other inside mouth bumps.
Directions
Mix enough warm water with ground cayenne pepper to form a thick paste. Use a cotton swab to apply directly to the canker sore. Repeat 2-3 times daily for pain relief.
Aloe Rinse
The gel from this magnificent plant provide great results when it comes to soothing not just sunburn, but canker sores as well. Make sure you use natural gel-not the green kind.
Directions
stir the gel into the water and swish it gently over the sore 3 times every day to ease the pain and facilitate healing.
Yogurt
Yogurt is produced by bacterial fermentation, which uses bacteria or yeast to convert carbohydrates into organic acids. The result is a tangy bacteria rich substance, which help because it balances out bacteria in your mouth which, if it was out of balance, may contribute to or cause a white bump inside lip from canker sores.
Warm Salt Water
When the salt content around cells is greater on the outside than the inside osmosis takes place, gargling with salt water can help greatly in reducing the painful swelling of the cells in the mucous membrane. The warm water also produces a general sense of soothing relief, while the salt may help keep the area clean.
Directions
Stir the salt into the warm water and swish it around in your mouth 3 times daily until the canker sore is gone.