Area around lips are red and sore CAN I USE THIS CREAM

dfsa

The area around my lips is bright red and sore. If it heals it just turns into white wispy bits of skin that peel off, and underneath is the same red soreness. The actual lips themselves are fine, it's the area around them that is sore. It makes me look a bit like a clown.

It has been like it for nearly 2 months now. It just won't heal. To start with I put lip salve on whenever it felt dry or sore, but it didn't seem to make much of a difference. I stopped licking my lips completely, this made them feel very dry and I have to apply more lip salve, but anyway, it's not like I've ever been sticking my tongue right out and licking the area around my lips which is the problem.

I went to my doctor and he prescribed me a topical steroid cream containing hydrocortisone acetate 1% and fusidic acid 2%. He said such creams should not really be used on the face, but I'm to use it for 7 days and then stop. I did that. It was like a wonder cream, the area around my lips felt fine, they healed and didn't get worse, they just looked slightly red from how it was before, but even that started to fade.

After the 7 days when I stopped using it, they immediately went back to how they were before. I've been applying lip salve, I'm not sure if it helps or not. It stops it from feeling dry and sore, but I think it's only supposed to be used on your lips, not the skin around them.

Is it safe to use the steroid cream again? Or what should I do?

I don't know what is causing it, but I think the water here doesn't help. Drinking it sets my top lip off, and after a shower my lips are really sore. I also thought it might be a vitamin deficiency, I heard a deficiency of one of the B vitamins can cause that (additionally I had scrotal peeling). So I took multivitamins and am still taking them. It cleared up the wispy peeling and soreness on my scrotum within a couple of days, and haven't had that since. My lips started to look like they might get better too, but then got worse again. Possibly I aggravated it a bit by washing it too much, and drinking orange juice from a carton so that I have to tip it up, and it might get on my lips.