Know Everything About Cold Sores and Its Medications

What Is a Cold Sore?

Cold sores are small, red, painful, pus-filled blisters that mainly occur inside the mouth, tongue, or lips. The causing virus of this infection is known as Herpes Simplex virus or HSV.

A cold sore is usually considered a mild disease for adults. But sometimes in children, it may prove to be severe. So let’s find out about cold sore medications and necessary information about this condition.

Symptoms Of Cold Sores

The infected person feels a burning, itching, or painful sensation in the affected area. The affected area becomes swollen up but a bit and turns red.

Stages Of A Cold Sore Infection

All cold sore infection usually follows a pattern of five stages. With knowledge of the stages, you will get a clearer idea on the symptoms of this viral disease.

• You develop a burning, itching, or tingling sensation in the affected area.
• It takes a day to form painful, swollen, and pus-filled blisters.
• Pus pops out breaking the outer skin layering of the blisters.
• A protective scab forms over the area.
• The scab dries and falls off.

Certain other effects are also associated with an HSV infection. These can include painful swallowing, stomach illness, sore throat, pain in the mouth. After the body prepares an antibody against cold sores, then even the infection becomes recurring, the effects become mild.

Cold Sore Diagnosis

A cold sore can be recognized just by looking at the infection or the blisters. Diagnosis for this particular viral attack is pretty simple. In rare cases, fluid can be collected from the blisters for an HSV test.

Can cold sores be cured?

There is no definite cure for cold sores. The infections heal on their own. It usually takes a couple of weeks.

Medications To Cure Cold Sore

Various cold sore medications are available. They boost up the healing process giving the affected person faster relief. Among medications, there are anti-viral pills, tablets, ointments, and injections.

• Ointments include penciclovir (Denavir) or Docosanol (Abreva). These creams should be gently applied to the affected area several times a day.
• Some common medications are acyclovir (Zovirax), famciclovir (Famvir), or Cal acyclovir (Valtrex).
• Using Injections to cure cold sores is very rare as it is prone to many adverse side effects. But, for severe cases, some injections are pushed into the bloodstream for speedier relief. Some examples are acyclovir and foscarnet.

Bottom Line

Cold sores are very common. Research says that almost 90% of people have some form of HSV (the causing virus of cold sores) in their blood. There is no cure to it as such. However, you might find various medications available that speed up recovery. Apart from that, if you follow some precautions and home remedies, you can get rid of a cold sore much quicker than it using takes.

Wisp is a telehealth company that offers treatment for a range of medical conditions like cold sores (hellowisp.com/cold-sore-medications), urinary tract infection, genital herpes, birth control, yeast infections, and bacterial vaginosis. To know more, visit https://hellowisp.com/blog.

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