There is usually no serious cause behind lip twitching, but it can be quite annoying for you. Whether it is bottom lip twitchingor the upper lip twitching, it can be equally annoying and irritating. You usually experience this situation due to fatigue, stress, excessive caffeine intake, emotion, or lack of potassium in your diet. The good thing is that lip twitching usually goes away in minutes, but it may as well take a few days in some cases. If you're experiencing persistent lip twitching with some other symptoms as well, you may need to consult with your doctor to look for underlying disorders.
What Causes Lip Twitching?
When the muscles around your lips contract suddenly, you experience lip twitching. Sometimes, the twitching is quite fast, so other people usually cannot see it. Others may notice it though if the contraction is not that fast.
Causes for Occasional Lip Twitching
You may experience this situation soon after withdrawing from drugs, alcohol, or cigarettes. On the other hand, you will notice your lips contracting if you're consuming excessive coffee, sodas, caffeine pills, or chocolate.
Some other common causes of occasional lip twitching are fatigue, fear, stress, severe anxiety, and damage of your facial nerve.
Causes for Persistent Lip Twitching
If you're noticing persistent lip twitching, it could be due to one of the following reasons:
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Causes |
Description |
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Tremors |
Essential tremors as well as hysterical tremors can be the reason behind your persistent lip twitching. Use of too many drugs may lead to hysterical tremors, whereas stress is the trigger behind essential tremors. If tremors are the underlying cause, you may experience muscle contraction in other areas of your body as well. |
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Bell’s Palsy |
Consistent lip twitching may be the outcome of a medical condition, such as Bell's palsy in which your facial nerves get damaged due to any reason. If your consistent twitching is due to Bell's palsy, you may also notice some other symptoms, such as difficulty speaking, facial swelling, and facial droop. |
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Facial Spasms |
Sometimes, you experience consistent twitching due to tics and spasms. You will notice contraction if you're suffering from Hemi facial Spasm, a condition usually initiated by anxiety and fatigue. This may be the outcome of a tumor compressing your facial nerve – there may be no cause whatsoever. |
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Ticks |
The twitching could also be due to a facial tic that involves the muscles of your lips, face, and eyes. You will experience repeated spasm if you're dealing with tics. The condition usually improves with age, but aggravates with stress. |
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Parkinson’s Disease |
Consistent twitching of your upper lip may be the outcome of Parkinson's disease, in which the dopamine secreting cells become dysfunctional. You may also notice other symptoms such as slurred speech, shaking of hands or extremities, and signs related to neuro-degeneration. |
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Hypoparathyroidism |
Your twitching upper lip may be due to hypoparathyroidism in which inadequate amounts of parathormone hormone leads to the increase of phosphorous and decrease of calcium in body. You may also experience muscle spasms of the mouth, face, or right/left side of the lip. |
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Other Causes |
It doesn't matter if you're experiencing lower lip twitching or upper lip contraction, this could be due to an underlying condition if it's constantly annoying you. A persistent twitch may also be the sign of DiGeorge syndrome or Tourette's syndrome. You may notice other symptoms as well. |
Click here to learn more about the causes of lip twitching, especially upper lip twitching.
How to Deal with Lip Twitching
It is important to find out the underlying cause to be able to identify the best treatment option. For instance, you may not need any treatment if you're suffering from tic disorders because it's not that severe – it usually resolves over time. You may want to take some other steps though to prevent it from happening more often.
- Limit your intake of caffeinated or alcoholic beverages
- Take a warm, wet cloth and place it right on your lip where you're noticing a twitch
- Be sure to perform yoga, meditation, or other stress buster exercises to reduce fatigue
- Stick to a balanced diet with food rich in potassium, such as watermelon, bananas, etc.
Just keep in mind that if your condition doesn't improve after taking these self-care measures, you should go see a medical specialist for advice.
Fun Superstitions About Lip Twitching
Although you can find a medical explanation of lip twitching, you can also find people have different beliefs pertaining to this condition. For instance, many people believe that if you're experience upper lip twitching, you're more likely to get a kiss that day. You may also be the one giving a kiss to someone if you're upper lip twitches. Similarly, some people believe you may have to deal with something bad if the twitching is on the left side of your lips. If it is on the right side of your lip, you're going to see something great happening that day.