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Concept
Vermilion border
Summary
The vermilion border (sometimes spelled vermillion border), also called margin or zone, is the normally sharp demarcation between the lip and the adjacent normal skin. It represents the change in the epidermis from highly keratinized external skin to less keratinized internal skin. It has no sebaceous glands, sweat glands, or facial hair.
It has a prominence on the face, creating a focus for cosmetics (it is where lipstick is sometimes applied) and is also a location for several skin diseases. Its functional properties, however, remain unknown.
The lips are composed wholly of soft tissue. The skin of the face is thicker than the skin overlying the lips where blood vessels are closer to the surface. As a consequence, the margin of the lips shows a transition between the thicker and thinner skin, represented by the vermilion border. It therefore has the appearance of a sharp line between the coloured edge of the lip and adjoining skin.
It has been described as a pale, white rolled border and also as being a red line.
This fine line of pale skin accentuates the colour difference between the vermilion and normal skin. Along the upper lip, two adjacent elevations of the vermilion border form the Cupid's bow.
The vermilion border represents the change in the epidermis from highly keratinized external skin to less keratinized internal skin. It has no sebaceous glands, sweat glands, or facial hair.
There are two reasons that the border appears red in some people:
The epithelium is thin and therefore the blood vessels are closer to the surface.
This epithelium contains eleidin which is transparent and the blood vessels are near the surface of the papillary layer, revealing the "red blood cell" color. At the angles of the mouth, there are sebaceous glands, without hair follicles, which are called Fordyce spots.
The vermilion border is important in dentistry and oral pathology as a marker to detect disease, such as in actinic cheilitis.
Perioral dermatitis is a rash typically around the mouth, that spares the vermilion border.
Official source
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