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What Causes Cold Sores and How Do I Prevent Them?

What Causes Cold Sores and How Do I Prevent Them?

You may start to feel it before it erupts, a tingling, itching, or a burning sensation on your lip. Then one day, you wake up with a cold sore on your lip. In addition to being painful, cold sores are unsightly and often cause someone to be self-conscious. So what is a cold sore actually and how do you get it?

What Are Cold Sores?

Don’t let the name fool you. Cold sores are not from colds, but a common viral infection, the herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1). Cold sores commonly appear on the lips – often during childhood, but can reappear at any age. They appear as weepy blisters that last about a week. Although they do disappear, the virus stays inside nerve cells and never completely goes away. There are many triggers that can make them reappear such as sun exposure, surgical/dental procedures and stress.

Cold sores are contagious and can spread from person-to-person through contact with skin or saliva. The highest contagion period is once the blisters appear and right after they burst. The virus can also be spread via saliva and, in turn if sharing utensils or cups and glasses.

Cold Sore Treatment

Before the sore appears, there is a period where the skin is red and irritated. This is important to notice because treatment is best when this early warning sign appears rather than when the blister actually emerges. Once the blister becomes visible, there is no treatment that is effective to make it disappear, only topical creams or gels to help with any pain. Hot and cold compresses can also reduce the pain.

Treatments for cold sores generally reduce the healing time and should be done during the early, warning phase. During this time an oral anti-viral medication can be taken for 5-7 days or one full dose in a 24-hour period. People who have recurrent cold sore infections (about 6 times a year) may be on suppressive therapy. Suppressive therapy is taking the oral anti-viral medication daily for up to one year or longer.

If you’re getting frequent cold sores, a dermatologist can help. At Dermatology Specialty Care, we specialize in general medical, surgical and cosmetic dermatology in Connecticut including shingles, impetigo, acne, skin cancer, eczema, warts, moles, fungal nail infections, rashes and scars. Our dermatology offices are located in the Fairfield County, CT towns of Danbury, Norwalk and Ridgefield.


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Multi-Specialty Private Practice with six locations in Fairfield County, CT