How to Treat and Prevent Cold Sores

How to Treat and Prevent Cold Sores Dr. Travis Stork: An email from Tia in Albany and Tia writes, “Dear Doctors, I get cold sores all the time. I hate it. How can I treat them or avoid them?” Well, Tia you're not alone. Cold sores are predominant almost everywhere. We’ve got an animation to show you what’s going on with these cold sores. They do commonly occur in clusters around the corners of your mouth and it is caused by the herpes simplex virus. This virus actually lives in your nerve cell and when it gets reactivated, it comes and develops sores on your mouth. It becomes very painful. Now the issue is they can be contagious even when you don’t have an outbreak and sometimes you’ll have the pain before you ever had a blister so the key to prevent them if you don’t suffer from them already is you really don’t want to share, spit. You don’t want to share toothbrushes, utensils. You don’t want to drink from the same glass with someone if they’re having an outbreak because then obviously you're at risk for catching the virus. Dr. Drew Ordon: Well, certain people I’ve never had a cold sore. It’s just my immunity. Dr. Jim Sears: You know I see them a lot in even kids they get a little outbreak inside their mouths, and it’s funny, most of those kids it does not become that recurrent problem. I think some people are just able to kind of fight it off and it goes away. Dr. Travis Stork: So one thing you can do is you can actually replace the toothbrush after you’ve had an outbreak. You can use the smaller size toothpaste containers because these can actually transmit the virus. Dr. Jim Sears: Because you're touching your brush when you put it on there. I never thought of it. Dr. Lisa Masterson: And what I tell my patients a lot is put some ice on there. Again, this is a cold device with ice on there and that will decrease the inflammation, the swelling and-- Dr. Travis Stork: It is a hot and cold show so that would make sense. Dr. Jim Sears: There you go. Now these are hot or cold like petroleum jelly or aloe vera on the cold so that it can kind of keep it moist, keep it from cracking because if it’s cracked, it can get a little infected. Some of the over-the-counter remedies help protect the tissue around the cold sore to keep it from spreading and might even make it heal up a little faster. Dr. Travis Stork: And actually, you may want to -- if you're having an outbreak, avoid arginine rich foods. That’s an amino acid that’s found in chocolates, sodas, nuts and whole grains and even beer. But the good news is I'm actually not having an outbreak right now so -- Dr. Jim Sears: So you're good to go. Dr. Travis Stork: Can I have some beer? Dr. Jim Sears: Nice, drink away, huh? Dr. Lisa Masterson: There you go, cheers. Dr. Jim Sears: And since you don’t have a cold sore we could share. Dr. Travis Stork: Have a drink. Dr. Jim Sears: Because I don’t have a cold sore. It’s really nice. Dr. Travis Stork: And this is a hot cold show and that beer is hot. Dr. Jim Sears: Yeah, this is -- Dr. Drew Ordon: That’s why I passed. Dr. Travis Stork: But simple measures can keep those cold sores --