What will dry up a cold sore fast

Avoid triggers for cold sores, which can be different for each person. Some common cold sore triggers are stress, hormonal changes, illness and physical strain. Once you know your personal triggers, you can be mindful to avoid them.

Taking care of your lips with a sunblock lip balm can help prevent cold sores from other triggers, such as exposure to sunlight and dry, cracked lips. There are even lip balms specifically designed to help prevent and treat cold sore outbreaks.

If you suffer from cold sores often, your dentist may recommend taking an antiviral medication regularly to help prevent outbreaks. Finding the right treatment for you might take a bit of trial and error, but with these options, you can find one that works best for you and get back to your healthy smile. Cold Compress To help your cold sore outbreak heal quickly, try holding a cool, damp cloth against the sore. Cold Sore Ointment Cold sore ointment is available over the counter and, when applied as directed, it can help shorten a cold sore outbreak.

Prescription Medication Antiviral drugs can also be used to help your cold sores heal more quickly. A day later, an oozy, fluid-filled blister on your mouth, always at the most inopportune time. Family medicine physician Sarah Pickering Beers, MD , shares her advice for dealing with this sore spot.

Cold sores are common and mostly harmless. In some lucky people, the virus might cause a cold sore once or twice and never rear its head again. But for other people, they come back again and again, sometimes several times a year. And that gets old real fast. Two weeks might as well be an eternity when you have an oozy, scabby sore smack dab in the middle of your face. While cold sores are annoying in adults, the virus can be life-threatening in a baby, so take care to steer clear, Dr.

There are antiviral drugs that can help cold sores heal faster, including acyclovir, valacyclovir, famciclovir and penciclovir. If you're having frequent outbreaks or experiencing some of the serious side effects of having a cold sore, your doctor may consider prescribing antiviral medication.

So you nipped your last cold sore flare-up in the bud like a champ , and it lasted less than a week — but here you are, just a few months later, and the cold sores are back. There's good news, and then there's bad news. Let's start with the bad news.

Instead, the virus travels back into your nerves, where it can lie dormant for long periods of time. When the virus reemerges, it typically does so in the same spot as before. But, here's the good news. While there's not much you can do about some of these triggers, others can be avoided. If you suffer from cold sores and think they may be caused by stress, it's a good idea to manage your stress via mediation or other relaxation techniques," suggests Dr.

But, while you may not know it, the virus can also spread by sharing: Cosmetics Food and drink Lip balm Razors Toothbrushes Towels Utensils and drinking glasses "The virus is most contagious when a cold sore is present, particularly when the blister begins to ooze," Dr.

What are the best ways to get rid of a cold sore?