Word parts
What it means
Describes the skin and tissue that circle the lips. Nurses chart perioral numbness or tingling, perioral cyanosis (a blue tinge around the lips) and perioral rashes. Tingling around the mouth is a classic early finding with a low blood calcium, and a blue ring around the mouth of a crying newborn can be normal for the first hours.
For the nurse
Ask clients after thyroid or parathyroid surgery, or with low calcium, about tingling around the mouth and in the fingers, and report it.
In a chart
"Client reports perioral tingling 18 hours after thyroidectomy; provider notified, calcium level ordered."
Related terms
calcium
A mineral that builds bones and teeth and that nerves, muscles, the heart and blood clotting need to work.
cyanosis
A blue or gray color of the skin, lips or nail beds.
peri-
A word beginning that means around or near.
total thyroidectomy
Surgery to remove the whole thyroid gland.