The 8 Best Ways to Get Rid of a Fat Lip, and 2 Methods to Avoid

Though it's generally not a serious injury, a fat lip can be painful. And knowing how to get rid of a fat lip can help you heal your injury fast.

Injured lips can come about for a number of reasons. A blow to the face can cause swelling from trauma to the soft lip tissue. Other times, fat lip swelling is the result of an allergic reaction to a food or insect bite or sting, according to the Mayo Clinic. Sunburns and infections like cold sores can also be the culprit, per the Cleveland Clinic.

If you're wondering what to do for a fat lip, first assess the damage. Check the inside and outside of your mouth for any bleeding or an open wound that may need medical attention.

If there's no emergency, try these 8 remedies to get rid of a fat lip fast.

Rinse your mouth with clean water to flush out the area, per the Cleveland Clinic.

You can also try a salt water solution of 1 teaspoon of salt dissolved in 1 cup of warm water to help relieve pain, according to Kaiser Permanente.

Wrap a cold compress, ice or bag of frozen vegetables in a towel and hold it to your lip to help reduce swelling and ease pain, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Apply ice to your fat lip every hour or two for 10 to 15 minutes at a time for the first 24 hours, per the University of Rochester Medical Center.

If you don't have a cold compress on hand, sucking on an ice cube or ice pop can also do the trick, per the University of Rochester Medical Center.

Suck on an ice cube every hour or two for the first 24 hours to help reduce pain and swelling.

If allergies are to blame for your fat lip, take your prescribed allergy medication or an over-the-counter antihistamine like diphenhydramine (Benadryl is a common brand-name option), per the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Follow the dosing instructions on the label.

Per the Cleveland Clinic, common allergic triggers for a fat lip include:

• Allergens in the air, like pollen, mold and dander
• Food, including common food allergens like milk, peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, fish and shellfish
• Insect bites or stings
• Medications like non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), codeine and certain blood pressure medicine

Take the edge off of an aching fat lip with an over-the-counter pain medicine like ibuprofen or acetaminophen, per the Cleveland Clinic. Follow the dosing recommendations on the label.

Applying honey to the area may be another way to get rid of a fat lip.

Why? The sugar in honey may help draw water out of the affected area, which can reduce swelling and make room for healing lymph fluid to flood the area, according to a June 2015 review in ‌Wound.‌

If your fat lip is the result of a bee sting, baking soda paste may help with itching in the area, per the University of New Hampshire. It might also help relieve canker sores inside your mouth or lips, according to Mount Sinai. Just add water to a spoonful of baking soda until it forms a paste, then apply it to the affected area.

That said, there's no research about whether baking soda paste can help reduce swelling from a fat lip specifically. Still, it may be worth a try if other remedies haven't done the trick.

Similarly, mixing turmeric and water to create a paste may be another effective fat lip treatment.

Curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric, has been used to treat inflammation throughout the body, as well as pain and inflammation for oral conditions like gingivitis, per Oregon State University's Linus Pauling Institute.

There's no research about how turmeric paste can treat lip swelling specifically, so it's unclear if these anti-inflammatory effects will also work well on a fat lip. But it's worth a shot if you have the spice on hand.

Some people claim that pressing a damp tea bag to the injured area can help reduce pain and swelling.

While there's little evidence to support this strategy, the University of Michigan Health Service recommends tea bags to relieve sores inside your mouth or lips. However, there is no instruction about what type of tea to use.

Vitamin E is a common ingredient in skin care products due to antioxidant properties that may help prevent and repair cell damage. It's often used to help treat wounds, burns and scars.

However, research to support these uses is lacking and more data is needed to establish whether vitamin E is an effective remedy for any injury, including a fat lip, per a July 2016 review in the ‌Indian Dermatology Online Journal‌.