Treatment of actinic cheilitis using a 1,927-nm thulium fractional laser.

Actinic cheilitis (AC) is a precancerous condition of the lip that primarily affects people with Fitzpatrick skin types I and II as a result of chronic exposure to solar irradiation. Additional factors include poor oral hygiene, chronic lip irritation, and excessive tobacco use. The clinical spectrum of AC is varied and may include erythema, leukoplakia, scaling, atrophy, dryness, fissures, ulcers, and loss of the vermilion border. As with actinic keratosis (AK), AC has the potential to undergo malignant transformation into invasive squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Although the exact rate of malignant conversion is unknown, SCC of the lip is the most common malignancy of the oral cavity and is more aggressive than SCCs in other sites, so early diagnosis and effective treatment of AC is necessary to curtail its malignant transformation.