Angular cheilitis as a polyetiological pathology

Abstract

Angular cheilitis (also termed perleche, cheilosis, or angular stomatitis or angulus infectiosus) was first described by a French doctor by Dr. Lemaistre (Lemaistre, 1855), who called this disease «perlèche», from the French word «pourlècher» (to lick one’s lip). Currently, we use the term angular cheilitis both in the dental and dermatovenerological literature. Clinically, this is a frequent condition characterized by mucosal-tocutaneous lesions with erythema, maceration, fissures, and crusting at the corners or in one or both adhesions. Pathogenesis is often multifactorial [2, p. 220]. A unilateral lesion is usually short-lived and most often due to local trauma. Bilateral involvement is often chronic and suggests an anatomic abnormality with excessive mouth closure, irritant reactions, infections, inflammatory dermatoses, and/or nutritional deficiencies.