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Benefits of cold sore medicine
Cold sore medicine - Creams
Cold sore medicine - Oral Treatment
- They may stop herpes infection before any blisters appear or
- Limit the duration and severity of cold sores.
- Reduce the number of lesions
- Decrease cold sore healing time
- Prevent herpes transmission by limiting viral shedding*
*Viral shedding refers t the period when no herpes infection or cold sore is felt but herpes is present on the infected person's skin and infectious.
Personally I didn't have great results with herpes medicine but I did notice that the duration and severity of herpes infections were mildly reduced while taking acyclovir orally. Results may be very different from one person to another and there are more cold sore medicine than acyclovir, a very popular one being Val acyclovir known by the brand name Valtrex
Cold sore medicine - Creams
Zovirax cream :
Acyclovir 5% cream known as Zovirax is FDA approved for the treatment of cold sores. If applied very often and early on it can limit herpes infection to half a day. For maximum effect, it should be used at the first sign of an episode (often the tingling sensation that precedes the formation of blisters) in order to stop the virus from multiplying. This may reduce the length and intensity of an outbreak, speed the healing of any blisters and, in some cases, actually prevent a full episode from occurring.
Denavir :
Penciclovir 1% cream is FDA approved for the treatment of recurrent fever blisters. During two double-blind studies it reduced cold sore symptoms by half a day when applied 1 hour after the first symptoms every two hours during waking time. Denavir may cause headache in rare cases. It seems that many people prefer Denavir to Zovirax cream. But I still think that none medicinal topical treatment may be more potent than both.
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Cold sore medicine Oral treatment
Antivirals acyclovir known as Zovirax, famciclovir (Famvir) and valcyclovir (Valtrex) can be taken orally for the treatment of severe oral herpes symptoms or for cold sores in the mouth or nose or any hard to reach area. You will need a prescription form your doctor to buy this cold sore medicine so ask them for advice. Once again, to obtain maximum relief, treatment should be started as soon as any symptoms are noticed.
If you have many severe recurring cases of fever blisters, you doctor will probably suggest that you take oral therapy everyday to prevent further herpes infections. This is called suppressive therapy and is not very common for treating colds sores. But it is usually suggested for severe cases or cold sores located around the eye area or on dermatitis on the head and neck. Your doctor may also suggest that you use both oral and topical treatment.
Furthermore, all patients undergoing cosmetic procedures such as facial resurfacing are routinely treated with oral antiviral therapy to avoid reactivation of facial herpes.
For more information on oral herpes medicine go to the genital herpes treatments page.
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| Best cold sore remedies: A list of my favorite cold sore remedies. |
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