What Causes Lip Twitching

Lip twitching is caused by spontaneous, sudden muscular contractions in or around the lips. When there is lip twitching, the muscles in or around the lip contract, making it feel like it is quivering. If the twitching is fast, it may not appear to be twitching to others, but it may still be felt. Sometimes the contractions are more noticeable to others and may be have other symptoms too.

Quivering of the lips is a sudden involuntary tightening of the lip muscles. It may also be caused by tightening of the muscle fibres due to direct stimulation, irritation and/or injury of the nerve reaching upto these muscles. Lip twitching are unusual irregular contractions of muscle of the lips. Twitching may occur suddenly even when the lips motionless or may happen after direct stimulus to the lips, like pressure, electrical, chemical or heat. Lip twitches are usually speedy, almost unnoticeable movements of the lips that happen during a focused action such as pursing of lips and may show muscle fatigue.

Causes of Lip Twitching

• The common causes of lip twitching include :
• Stress.
• Severe anxiety
• Fatigue.
• Potassium deficiency.
• Emotions, such as anger, amusement, fear.
• Excessive intake of coffee, soft drinks, tea or chocolates
• Alcohol abuse or withdrawal
• nicotine withdrawal

Other causes of lip twitching maybe :

• Damage to the facial nerve due to any reason.
• Bell’s palsy may also cause occasional lip twitching. It may also be accompanied by facial droop.

Involuntary movements of the face, including quivering of the lips, occurs in this condition which may be increased or caused by fatigue or anxiety. It might also occur in case of facial tic. A facial tic may engage the eyes or muscles of the face and lips. There is repeated tremor of the involved muscles. Tics occur often in childhood and resolve on their own but they may sometimes continue throughout life. Anxiety is known to exaggerate this condition.

Twitching or tremor of the lips may occur in Parkinson’s disease, as rhythmical, spontaneous, movements affecting one or both lips, along. This tremor of the lips takes place at rest and may stop while performing activities like eating or speaking. Twitching of the lips is not noticed when the patient is asleep. In later stages of the disease, lip tremors may continue even while the patient is talking or eating.

 Another cause of lip twitching is drug induced tremors which may be present as a result of opiate withdrawal. It can be severe during the phases of detoxification. It may also continue after rehabilitation as is seen among recovering addicts, along with other symptoms such as head tremor,  tongue, voice and lip tremor, causing difficulty with speech.

Emotions can also trigger lip muscle contractions. People might experience this when they indulge in strong feelings of anger, fear, joy, or happiness. It can also occur with over tiredness as well as stress and anxiety. Thus lip twitching can be quite a disturbing symptom even if, in most cases, the reason behind it may not be serious.