I Don't Want to Jinx Anything, but I Think I Found a Cure

I have had chapped lips for as long as I can remember. I mean horribly flakey chapped lips. I think I have tried almost every possible chapstick or lip-balm remedy there is. Nothing works for very long and before you know it, I'm again chewing off flakes of skin.

Most of the time the chapped lips are just a nuisance, but sometimes they do cause me to be a little self-conscious. Like the time an elementary student looked at me with utter disgust and horror and said "Your lips are ugly. They are really chapped." Ah, you gotta love kids and their honesty. Or when a last month when I was trying to show the dermatologist a spot on my lip that I was concerned about because it was discolored & he couldn't identify the area because me lips were so chapped.

But the conversation with the dermatologist was an enlightening one. He asked about how long my lips had been chapped. I told him literally for as long as I can remember. He said that it appeared that the chapping was due to something come in contact with me lips. There are only two things that have routinely come into contact with my lips for as long as I can remember...milk and toothpaste.

I have had enough food allergy tests done to know that I am not allergic to milk. Then I started thinking about toothpaste and when my lips seem the most chapped. They are most chapped every time I brush my teeth. So then I thought that maybe I'm allergic to some of the ingredients in toothpaste. I hoped that by changing to a "natural" toothpaste this would cure my chapped lips. But it didn't.

Finally I thought about times when the dentist has put vaseline on my lips before my flouride treatments and times when he doesn't. Vaseline on lips before flouride = no chapped lips; no vaseline = chapped lips.

LIGHTBULB!

Vaseline on lips before brushing my teeth!

I've been doing this for about a week and there is a marked improvement in the state of my lips...no more flakey skin. What a remarkable thing this might be if this turns out to be the cure for my chapped lips. I just can't believe it took me 40 years to find the answer.