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Cold sores are very contagious, they can be very painful and they can cause the sufferer a good bit of embarrassment in social situations. Unfortunately there is no vaccine, pill or magic potion that can cure a cold sore but there are a number of ways to ease the symptoms and shorten the healing process.
You need to focus on keeping the sore and the area around it clean and moist to prevent the cold sore from cracking and bleeding. If your cold sore gets dried and cracked it could add plenty of time to the normal healing time of about a week to ten days and it could be much more painful and unpleasant. Stick to basic petroleum jelly or lip balms to keep the area moist rather than expensive anti-biotic creams, as an anti-biotic cream won’t do anything to speed the healing process. If you’re experiencing excessive pain accompanied with swelling you should use a cold compress and an over the counter pain killer in order to ease the symptoms.
Avoid activities like kissing or sharing food and beverages during an outbreak as cold sores are highly contagious and easy to pass onto to others. Be sure to wash your hands thoroughly after applying petroleum jelly or touching the cold sore for any reason to minimize the chance of spreading the virus.
If you’ve kept the cold sore clean and moist and the symptoms don’t appear to be dissipating at all after about ten days you should schedule an appointment with your doctor for an evaluation.
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