A lip that tingles is something that has probably happened to all of us from time to time, but never given it much thought. Unfortunately, in some cases, tingling lips may be a warning sign of something that shouldn’t be ignored. Here in our discussion, we will take a look at some of the possible causes of this condition including numb lips, the symptoms that may go with these issues, and a number of natural treatments for tingling lips.
What Are Tingling Lips?
Also known as numb lips, is a problem that is fairly easily recognized. Your lips feel similar to when your feet or hands fall “asleep” or “pins and needles.” It is therefore a tingling sensation around the lips and a type of numbness.
The numbness or tingling may begin a little in the affected area and there after spread to the entire lips, depending on what the causes of the tingling is. Unfortunately, this is an issue that you may want to take a deeper look at.
Tingling Lips
Tingling of the lips makes someone feel like “pins and needles” on the lips as many may describe. It is a common problem caused due to nerve damage when a person is exposed to extreme temperature. There are several causes for getting this condition ranging from allergic food products to cosmetic factors. Tingling of lips may vary in duration with respect to its causative factor.
For some cases it may be for few seconds and for others it can extend for hours. There may or may not be numbness and pain when tingling of lips occur. For some people, it may affect their consciousness or may cause intense headache. If there is repeated tingling of lips, accompanied with numbness you need to seek immediate medical care.
Symptoms
Some of the common symptoms with tingling of lips are burning feeling on lips, dryness, numbness (for few seconds), chapped lips, pain (mild to moderate), warmth and redness over the lips, and inflammation of lips. For some people it may cause tingling on other parts of the body.
It can be a symptom of stroke or any complicated nervous disorder if tingling of lips is seen with numbness on one side of your body. Lips that tingle can be a warning signal if it influences your conscious level or alertness. There may be slurring of speech or sudden inability to speak when nervous system gets affected.
For some people there may be inability to move body parts on one side indicating partial paralysis. Others vision may get affected causing blurred vision and there can be worst headache which they have never had before. All these are serious symptoms wanting prompt medical care and hospitalization.
Other Symptoms Can Occur with Tingling Lips
Now that we have covered the initial symptoms of this problem and some of the things that might cause it to occur, you should be aware that there are other symptoms that may become part of the lips that tingle package.
Damaged lips
One of the symptoms and side effects of twitching lips or numbs lips is damaged lips in various forms. Chapped lips, dried out lips, or redness can all be part of having tingling or numb lips.
Painful moments
Sometimes, numb lips will get these bursts of pain and discomfort. These are often accompanied by one or more of the damaged lip symptoms, along with tingling or numb lips.
Sores
Have it in your mind that, sores are also something that comes with lips that tingle. They may be part of an allergy or oral herpes but when they occur, they may break up the numbness with a point of pain.
Why do my Lips feel Numb?
Lip tingling is abnormal feeling, and lip numbness is decreased or absent feeling in the lip. Both sensations, medically called paresthesia, arise from conditions affecting sensory nerves in the lips, but usually not from neurological diseases. Skin diseases also rarely cause tingling or numbness but rather itch, burning or pain in the lips.
There are several causes for lips numbness. Allergic foods can cause tingling in some people. It can be due to chemical burn or change in cosmetics. All conditions that cause lip tingling like chapped lips may be the reason for lips numbness sensation.
When a person is exposed to extreme weather conditions of heat or cold temperature, there can be tingling of lips. You may also get this problem due to the infection caused by herpes simplex virus. A simple cold sore can cause your lips to feel numb. Injury caused to lips may also affect the tissue covering of lips.
Tingling Lips Causes
This condition may develop as a sort of symptom before the allergies, imbalances in the blood chemistry, as well as various problems that may occur neurologically. It becomes extremely vital to visit a physician, when symptoms such as numbness, heat, and tingling as well as other sensations which cause irritation in the lips and thus examination by a doctor becomes extremely important.
Causes the Tingling Lips
Tingling of lips can have a number of causes behind them. Some of them are temporary issues that can be easily solved or will just go away on their own. Other causes have more serious implications that need to be looked at with a doctor. Here are the causes of lip tingling—both a mild and serious.
Allergies
If you have tingling or numb lips, they might be caused by something as simple as allergies. It could be an allergic reaction to a food product or any other allergen. The lips tingling could be caused by an allergic reaction to something that does not come in contact with your lips at all.
Chemical allergies like allergic reaction to cosmetics, soap, medicines or other substances can also result in tingling of lips.
Mineral deficiency
The tingling or numb lips may be the result of a mineral deficiency. A lack of potassium or sodium, for example, may be the cause of tingling of lips. A lack of phosphate can also be a mineral-deficient cause of numb lips.
Hypoglycemia
Hypoglycemia is when your blood sugar levels drop below a normal level. This can be due to things like diabetes, kidney failure, and infections. One of the symptoms of hypoglycemia can occasionally be tingling or numb lips.
Oral herpes
This is a condition which can cause what are commonly referred to as cold sores, can also cause numbness of the lips or lip tingling.
Raynaud’s phenomenon or disease
Raynaud’s phenomenon and Raynaud’s disease is when the blood vessels that are close to the surface of the skin become contracted due to low temperatures. When this occurs, it can cause your lips to go tingly, as well as other appendages. Raynaud’s phenomenon is when the cause is known like systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), systemic sclerosis, or vasculitis. When the cause is not known, it is Raynaud’s disease.
Infections
Serious infections like Hansen’s disease (also known as leprosy) and shingles can cause tingling lips. In last years, leprosy infection caused by Mycobacterium leprae, was reported only from Brazil, Myanmar and some African countries. Several years after infection, neurological symptoms may appear in the lips, other parts of the face (eyes, eyelids) or distal parts of the limbs. Numbness and reduced sensitivity to hot and cold are typical symptoms.
Multiple sclerosis
This is a disease that can cause issues with the nervous system being able to communicate with its various parts. MS can cause tingling of lips. With these causes come a few other symptoms you may not have considered that go along with tingling or numb lips. These secondary symptoms you may want to pay attention to.
Sea food Poisoning
Ciguatera Fish Poisoning: Big tropical fish, like tuna or mackerel, can cause tingling in the lips or other parts of the body few minutes or several hours after ingestion. Reversal of hot and cold sensations is also characteristic. Symptoms, lasting from hours to months, are caused by ciguatera toxin, produced by coral algae, accumulating in tropical fish and ingested by a human. Ciguatera poisoning is common in Central America, Caribbean, Australia and South Asia.
Scombroid Poisoning: In fish, not properly stored after being caught, histamine, the same substance as released in allergies, may build up and cause food allergy-like symptoms.
Tingling Lips Anxiety
If you ever get numb or tingly feelings in your body, and if you’re also an anxious person, the two are almost certainly connected. Numbness and tingling of the lips are very common physical symptoms of anxiety. They might not sound like severe symptoms to someone who has never experienced them, but they can be uncomfortable at best and terrifying at worst.
The best place to start is why anxiety causes numbness and tingling in the first place. Why does anxiety cause numbness and tingling of lips? There are 2 ways that anxiety causes numbness and tingling:
- incorrect breathing
- misfiring fight or flight response
Incorrect Breathing
When you’re relaxed your breathing is slow, steady, and controlled. You breathe in deep, full breaths and your lungs take the oxygen you need and release it into your blood. As your lungs are taking oxygen from the air you’ve just breathed in, they’re also releasing carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is the waste that’s left behind from the oxygen you’ve breathed earlier.
You have this process going on all the time: taking oxygen in, letting carbon dioxide out. And with normal breathing the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide happens at just the right rate. But when you’re anxious this delicate process gets screwed up.
Anxiety makes you take faster, shorter breaths, which makes it much harder for your lungs to make the exchange between oxygen and carbon dioxide. Anxious breathing generally makes you breathe out more than you breathe in, which means you get rid of too much carbon dioxide. That destroys your oxygen/carbon balance.
Your carbon dioxide levels fall and your oxygen levels rise. When your oxygen levels get high enough it raises the alkalinity in your blood, making the blood vessels around your body narrow. Narrow blood vessels means it’s hard for blood and oxygen to reach the parts of your body farthest from your heart. Your extremities, like your hands, feet, and face, will tingle or go numb, since they’re effectively being starved of oxygen.
Misfiring Fight or Flight Response
The second way that anxiety can cause numbness and tingling is all to do with the fight or flight response. You’re probably familiar with this response. It’s a survival instinct that kicks in when you’re in danger.
If your life is ever in jeopardy your fight or flight response gets instinctively triggered, causing lots of physical changes that’ll help you to either fight the danger or to run away from it. Your breathing will quicken, your heart will race, your blood will rush to your large muscles, and your senses will all heighten. These changes can save your life if you’re in extreme danger, so the fight or flight response is a wonderful thing to have on your side.
If you feel anxious all the time, your subconscious gets confused and misinterprets your anxiety as a sign you’re in physical danger. So your fight or flight response misfires. In other words, it happens when you don’t need it to. One of the biggest physical changes that happens as part of the fight or flight response is that your blood rushes to the parts of your body where you most need it if you’re in danger.
That means places like your thighs, chest, and shoulders to help you fight or run, and also to your head to help you think your way to safety. All this blood has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is the areas of your body that aren’t important if you’re in a fight for your life. Places like your fingers, your toes, your stomach, and your lips.
When the blood leaves these areas they go numb and may also tingle, since they no longer have blood or oxygen in them. It’s a lot like when your leg falls asleep if you sit on it for a long time. If you sit on your leg for ten minutes it stops any blood from getting to your foot. No blood in your foot makes it go numb.
When your fight or flight response misfires and the blood rush away from your foot it’s exactly the same thing. No blood in your foot equals numbness and tingling.
Lip Tingling no Cold Sore
Remember, tingling is a symptom and not a disease and that is why its actual cause has to be recognized in order to get its aid. Once we know the reason and treat it properly, this irritable condition can be got rid of. For example you can have this condition and not have a cold sore. We have discussed above that cold sore is one of the causes of lips tingling. If you have this condition and you cannot trace the cause, it is better if you visit your doctor if it gets worse.
Tingling Lips and tongue
Tingling lips and tongue is a kind of a symptom that may call for agent examination. If it is lips alone, you can negotiate with it, but if the tongue is involved you better seek medical help, and there are no specific ways to rescue yourself from it. If you are sure the situation is not alarming, you handle the tingly lips and tongue at home. This is why, a healthy lifestyle, correct sleep timings, healthy nutritive diet, less consumption of tobacco and alcohol can at least prevent it to occur or re-occur.
How to Stop Tingling Lips
If an individual suffers from lips that tingle, then he must consult a physician so as to explore the casual reasons, because tingling of lips is a symptom or sign and not an illness. Thereby the identification of the illness through the symptom becomes extremely important, in order to undergo a proper treatment. Few remedies that help to avoid the occurrence of tingling lips are:
Antihistamine is the most common medication for the relief of allergies, and thus is most commonly recommended by physicians. If diabetes is causing peripheral neuropathy, the blood glucose levels need to be checked in order to stop the recurrence of tingling lips.
Obstruct histamine-1 receptors in the gastrointestinal tract, respiratory tract and blood vessels of an allergic individual, thus causing the allergens to stop from acting and eventually stopping the tingling in the lips.
Individuals who suffer from panic attacks must practice yoga and other techniques for relaxation, in order to overcome the problems relating to stress and thereby the occurrence of tingling lips.
- Various herbal remedies also help to cure herpes, which sometimes results in tingling lips.
- The toothbrush should be changed on a regular basis as old tooth brushes invite organisms that cause cold sores and thrush.
- Salty and acidic food must be avoided as it further aggravates the pain and sensitivity associated with this condition.
- Carbonated drinks must also be avoided in such conditions
- Petroleum jelly must be frequently applied to heal cracks and prevent numbness.
- Foods rich in vitamin B must be consumed which includes cheese, yogurt, whole eggs, fish spinach and carrot.
Women who apply too much of cosmetics such as lipsticks and lip glosses must reduce the usage of such cosmetics as they contain various kinds of chemical substances which temporarily enhance the beauty of the lips but may sometimes cause damages such as the tingling of lips.
Natural Treatments for Tingling Lips
With some of the causes of tingling and numb lips, there are some natural treatments that can help stop the tingling and get your lips back to normal.
Vitamin Intake
If the tingling of lips is an outcome of deficiency of vitamins especially folate and B12, you can go for trusted capsules to eventually get away with this problem. There are quick relieves through this remedy if the cause is vitamin deficiencies.
Herbs
Lemon mint extract are very helpful in tingling lips especially in case of herpes virus. Also, lysine supplements, mint grass and milk based medicated products can help you get rid of tingling lips. There are many other herbal remedies like basil leaves, neem, etc. which heal the problem. Make sure you consult before choosing one.
Eat a balanced diet
As some of the causes of tingling lips are linked to certain mineral deficiencies, the best way to take care of those issues is eating foods to boost those minerals. Minerals that are no longer deficient can no longer cause your lips to go numb. This may also help if the cause is low blood sugar.
Chewing basil leaves
Chewing basil leaves may help clear out a mouth infection that is causing the numbness.
Peppermint oil
Peppermint oil can help clear up sores and a few of the minor bacteria that can cause tingling lips. The best way to do this is to use a clean cotton ball, dip it in peppermint oil, and then rub the oil around your lips.
Don’t pick at it
Numb or tingling lips can often come with sores and dry or cracked skin on the lip area. Don’t pick at it or tear off the dead skin. This can leave your lips open to more pain and damage. If you need to remove dead skin, take a cotton ball and dip it in lukewarm water and wipe the area (or use a very soft toothbrush). This can help clean out the area and clean off the dead skin without causing damage to the new skin.
More references
- Tingling lips and the causes: http://www.doctorshealthpress.com/health-articles/tingling-lips-causes-home-remedies
- Lightheadedness and weakness due to lip tingling: http://www.health24.com/Experts/Question/lip-tingling-lightheadedness-and-weak-20090217
- Causes of tingling lips: http://diseasespictures.com/tingling-lips/
- Numbness and tingling: https://migraine.com/migraine-symptoms/numbness-tingling/
- Causes of tingling and numb lips: http://www.healthhype.com/causes-of-tingling-or-numb-lips.html