As your elderly loved one ages, all parts of her body begin to change as well. One area that’s often overlooked is the lips, but like the rest of the body, they change as well. Their personal care at home provider could assist them with the tips discussed here.
How Lips Change with Aging
As a person ages, the lips and the skin around them begin to change. Muscles, collagen, and fat pads diminish resulting in thinner lips both appearance-wise and physically. Bone loss can also change this area of the face, causing the lips and mouth to “sink in.” A lifetime of exposure to the sun makes them more susceptible to damage now. If your loved one smoked for a good part of her life, that can also affect how the lips look and their overall health.
Chapped Lips Become More Common with Age
Because of the changes and the thinning of skin, it becomes more common for chapped lips to occur. While they are mainly an uncomfortable condition that can easily be treated, if your loved one doesn’t care for her lips appropriately, chapped lips can lead to painful damage to her lips. To keep lips healthy, it can be helpful to have someone such as a personal care at home provider help your loved one stay on top of her lips’ needs.
Four areas a personal care at home provider can help with your elderly loved one’s lip care:
Staying Hydrated. Healthy lips start from within. The best way to keep lips from drying out is by staying hydrated. Many elderly struggle with dehydration because they stop feeling thirsty like they did when they were younger so they don’t drink as much. Many people remember to drink plenty of fluids if they are outside exercising in the heat, but when they’re staying home all day may forget that their body still needs fluids to stay healthy. A personal care at home provider can remind your loved one to drink the required amount of water each day to stay hydrated and have healthy lips.
Moisturize the air. Dry air can cause the skin and lips to dry up and become cracked, especially in winter months when heated air is used to keep our living environments warm. Heated air is often very dry. A humidifier is a great way to add moisture back into the air and should be used in any room that your loved one spends a lot of time in like the bedroom and living area. A personal care at home provider can maintain the humidifier so your loved one continues to get the benefits.
Apply lip balm. Your loved one should have a non-irritating lip balm or lip moisturizer applied several times a day and before bed. For dry and cracked lips one should use a thick ointment like white petroleum jelly.
Protect the lips from the sun. Even in winter months, your loved one’s lips need to be protected from the sun and that means a different type of lip balm should be used if she’s going to spend some significant time outside in the sun. She should use lip balms that have at least an SPF of 30 and it should be reapplied every two hours.
With proper attention, your loved one’s lips should be better in no time, but if she continues to have sores or pain, a doctor’s visit to get them checked out will be necessary.