Face is the most important body part when it comes to beauty and good looks.
If you have a clear and firm skin with no spots and blemishes, you will obviously look good. On the other hand, if you have perfect features but your skin has marks, blisters, pigmentation and acne, you cannot look good even if you wear loads of makeup.
Cold sore (also called Fever blisters) is such an ailment that does not only hurt, but it also makes one look bad with blisters all around the mouth.
It is equally painful, too. In this article, I am going to discuss cold sore symptoms and remedies.
What are Cold Sores:
The medical terminology for this ailment is “Herpes Labialis”, i.e. oral herpes. These are highly painful blisters and lesions that appear around the lips, chin, cheeks and nostrils. These are caused by the virus named Herpes Simplex. Worst thing about this illness is that no vaccine or treatment has been invented for it yet; all you can do is to apply some remedies that can help to assuage the pain and feeling of illness.
It is important to note that a Cold sore is different from a Canker sore. Canker sores are commonly known as mouth ulcers and appear inside the mouth, whereas cold sores appear on the outside of mouth. Very rarely cold sores occur inside the mouth, too, but they are smaller in size than the canker sores. Also, the latter is not caused by a virus.
Symptoms:
Just before these contagious blisters form on your face, the going-to-be-infected area goes all itchy and dry, and you get tingling and burning feelings there. When you get the disease for first time ever, you can also have fever, headaches, swollen lymph glands and sore throat.
Remedies:
Cold sores disappear within few days usually. In many cases, they reoccur again and again. This is because once a person is infected with this virus; he/she can not get rid of it as it stays in the body for lifetime. There are other ways by which the situation can be handled.
- Numbing agents can be applied to alleviate burning, itching and tingling feelings e.g. tetracaine, benzocaine, lidocaine, benzyl alcohol, camphor, and phenol.
- Compounds like zinc, lysine, phenol, and tannic acid prohibit the virus to form lesions and blisters.
- Balms and moisturizers like petrolatum and allantoin soften the scabs and stop them from bleeding.
- Applying ice where it tingles is very helpful in stopping the progress of herpes labialis.
- Applying tea bag on the affected area is also helpful.
- Sage and Tea Tree Oil also help in this situation.
