Help! I am getting a bad cold sore. I get them MAYBE twice a year on my lip. They tend to swell up to the point where one side of my mouth almost wont open! Does any one know any good remedies to either stop the cold sore or make it smaller? no, popping it isn’t an option. I dont want it to make it spread. My fiancee says that applying a tea bag helps and I think she MAY be right as it doesn’t seem to be getting any bigger yet. Anybody?
Kenalog in orabase. Prescription. Cures 'em in a couple of days.
If you don’t want to go the prescription route, yes, the tannic acid in black tea helps dry them up pretty quickly. Also get some L-lysine (an enzyme that has some some good anti-viral properties)and take 500mg 2x daily until the cold sore is completely gone. L-lysine is pretty cheap at Trader Joes or any store where you can get supplements.
I have found that Carmex works really well for cold sores and chapped lips. You can find it at Wal-Mart for about $2.
I get them after being in the sun without block (zinc oxide, or Durascreen, something white not just SPF). At the first sign, apply ice. Liberally, for awhile. This really does keep the lip from swelling up (I look like I’ve been punched). Then I use Zilactin-Lip after piercing the sore with a needle (washed in antiseptic first). This will speed up the burst/scab/heal cycle. The Zilactin dries up the fluid and your lip too, so apply specifically to the sore.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=47348 also has hints.
http://content.health.msn.com/content/asset/uspdi.203495
This link is to Denavir, the antiviral prescription cream. It will not cure, but will shorten duration and ameliorate symptoms.
Warning: first paragraph is probably TMI. I got oral cold sores as an adult, and am enormously affected by them - we’re not talking little blisters you can cover with makeup here, we’re talking trouble. Glands swell, face swells, nose and ears itch, nausea, lip like an Ubangi (?sp) tribeswoman. Sometimes my eyes wouldn’t open properly, and the half of my face on which the cold sore is located feels like a dental anaesthetic is wearing off. Workmates have taken me aside and tried to talk me into seeing a domestic violence counsellor (“Don’t be silly, he must have hit you. Cold sores don’t make anyone look like that.”) I am actually incapacitated by an untreated coldsore outbreak for a day or so.
But the solution is so embarassing. Desert Essence Tea-Tree Oil Lip Balm is better than anything else I’ve tried, Rx or OTC, for reducing frequency, length and severity of outbreaks. I’ve only found it in the US, and after the first experience (when I bought it for chapped lips 'cos it was the only lip balm in the GNC store, not as an anti-coldsore remedy) I bought it by the boxfull and gave it to friends/relatives/workmates with coldsores. They had the same response - just great.
It’s embarassing 'cos I don’t believe in herbal-type-stuff, I figure if a folk remedy worked there’d be a multinational making bucketloads of money out of it. I’ll concede that tea-tree oil does have antiviral properties though.
But for the amount of relief it gives, I’ll sink a few cherished principles. (Think I’ll just mosey on over to the ‘addicted to lip-balm’ thread now. Byee.)
I was a long term user of Nyal Cold Sore cream (active ingredients Camphor and Menthol from Sterling Pharmaceuticals) but have found Zovirax (from Galaxo) to be superb, provided you hit’em early, i.e. as they start to tingle. I carry a tube with me so I can.
Both are available over-the-counter in Australia. Don’t know if the name or availability is the same in the U.S.
BTW L-Lysine is an amino acid, not an enzyme.
Zovirax: available in U.S. by prescription, as tablets, will shorten and ameliotate, will reduce further eruptions in size, severity, etc., even if not taken every time. Treatment should be started as soon as possible, i.e., carry the med with you.