XXkaiiOO's advice column

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Q: I'm 16 male,

I got my braces about a year ago and when they put them on when they stretched my mouth they hurt the corners of my mouth because they got too dry. Now I have always had problems with the corners of my mouth being to dry or something but ever since I got my braces it has been terrible.

About every couple of months they get dry and i just put some chapstick on and then they go back to being normal. The last couple of days my corners of my mouth have been dry and cracked feeling and no matter what i put on so far nothing helps...

What is the reason nothing is helping? What is this called?

I have gone to the doctor once and I don't feel like spending more money for them to just tell me to put chapstick or vaseline on when that stuff does not work. What can i do to fix this?

I remember when I had braces I had the exact same problem!!

The reason behind it, is probably not one you will like. It's because you drool and that is what causes the corners of your mouth to become sore and cracked and painful.

same logic as licking your lips a lot causes them to get chapped, when lips are wet (from licking, etc) the water evaporates and pulls out moisture. same principle with the corners of your mouth.

so, advice for you from someone who has been there.. what helped me was to sort of put chapstick on the corners of your lips each morning (if you can remember every morning, if not as often as you can remember when you wake up) to prevent the drying from becoming bad. (which leads to all that bad stuff)

that's all that you can really do, I mean because you can't really control what happens when you sleep.

sorry if that's not really good advice, it's just something that worked for me back in the day. hope it works for you too! :)