can I ask you a question? are you avoiding water contact with your lips? are you leaving them dry to try and heal the "scabs". if so then before you try any cream or ointment the doctors try and give you I recommend soaking them in water a lot throughout the day everyday. don't lick bite or pick at them just hydrate them with water under the sink, shower or while drinking water. the crusts will become really soft and just fall off naturally then they will not come back. but don't stop hydrating them with water. I don't understand why people will put all these weird creams oils and ointments and even petroleum on there lips but will not put water on there lips.

Steroid cream/ointment will help heal the wound faster if it is a wound. If it isn't a wound it will help for a time but the underlying problem will cause the EC to return eventually. Daniel Millier used a steroid ointment as part of his journey to healing and I think this played a significant part in his eventual cure. Whatever you use it's primary purpose is as a barrier to allow the fragile top layers of skin to heal. Steroids generally don't need constant application and stay on longer. I've used Enumovate ointment 0.5% at it seemed to make the biggest difference on the redness than all the other things I've used. Saying this I didn't use it for long enough and consistently enough. The key is consistency. Trying to heal an area which is subject to constant irritation in some form even if the there is no lip licking, there's constant food/water/air moving past the area we want to heal so you have to be methodical.

The irony I have found is that I take better care of my lips when I am conscious of them and that mainly happens in public. I feel I made best progess when I was travelling as I was constantly tending to them and applying a barrier to them and I seemed to make better progress this way than when I am at home and forget about them.