Re: Other names (medical terms or otherwise) for peeling, cracking, flaking lips that have gone beyond light chapping

Hi Lipschitz,

If "-osis means any abnormality" then I think it is perfectly logical to state that we all have cheilosis (which means abnormality of the lip surface, apparently) AND stomatosis (which means abnormality of the surface of the mouth area, including the lips, apparently).

I'm not sure why some people bristle at the idea of having sufferers and doctors use ONE overarching medical term for this that is all-encompassing and easily recognizable and searchable. It doesn't mean we aren't each individual and unique in our suffering! ;-)

"Peeling lips" isn't any more accurate or poetic than "cheilosis", and if sufferers prefer that to one of the several perfectly-decent medical terms used for "chronic, weird, abnormal lip stuff is happening to this patient" in medical diagnoses, this makes substantive information on the topic a whole lot harder to find on the internet, at least for people who are stumbling around on their own and trying to get answers for themselves. I think it took me 3 hours of searching under "cracked lips", "chapped lips", and "dry lips" to even see the word "cheilitis" for the first time. I then ignored it for a while in my searches, not realizing what it was, because it doesn't SOUND applicable. I didn't think to type the word "peeling" into the search engine. I would have searched under "flaking", "irritated", "allergic", "sensitive", "burning" before that.

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