What Doctors Don't Tell You About What It Feels Like, What It Looks Like, and How to Get Rid of It
The blisters caused by the oral herpes virus are usually a lousy ending to a great weekend. Activated by exposure to sunlight, the herpes simplex virus 1 can break out of the trigeminal nerve where it hibernates, sometimes for years, to quickly form painful, unsightly blisters. When you get one outbreak, you are at high risk for another, and another, sometimes as many as four or five per year, usually occurring when you have fun in the sun.
What your doctor probably won't tell you about what oral herpes feels like. You won't just wake up one morning with a nasty blister. Probably a day or two before you will experience early-warning signs of oral herpes. You might feel a tingle in your cheekbones, or on the tip of your nose, and then in your lips. Those are early-warning signs you are about to get a blister.
There are two things you can do. One is to trot down to the doctor's office to ask for a prescription for an antiviral drug like Valtrex. Taking a pill often stops the blister.
The other is to trot down to the natural products store and get some lemon balm. This herb won't stop the outbreak and it won't keep you from being infectious, but it will help the blister heal about twice as fast.
What your doctor probably won't tell you about your question "What does oral herpes looks like?" Every blister isn't herpes. Canker sores, for example, start gray or yellow but don't turn red. They are not caused by an infection, and you can't give them to someone else.
A yeast infection in your mouth will usually travel to your throat, although oral herpes usually will not. It's also more likely to look like a mold, which it is. And hand, foot, and mouth disease, which sometimes breaks out in epidemics affecting children, has red blisters surrounded by a white halo. The treatments for these diseases won't work for herpes, and the treatments for herpes won't work for these diseases.
What your doctor probably won't tell you about how to get rid of oral herpes. It's true that you have herpes infections forever, because they can hibernate in nerves that your immune system will not attack. However, you don't have to have cold sores forever.
Antiviral medications and lemon balm help cold sores heal faster. Ice and aspirin remove pain. Vaseline petroleum jelly keeps blisters from drying out and becoming even more painful, and swabbing a scab with a cotton ball soaked in milk will help lift the scab without tearing the new skin underneath.
And remember, the only question is not how do you get oral herpes from someone else. It is also a matter of how someone gets oral herpes from you.
If you have oral herpes, don't share it. From the moment you feel a tingle in your face or lips until about four days after the scabs come off, you can infect others with the virus. During this time, no kissing, no shared glasses, don't lend anybody your toothbrush. And make a habit of using sunscreen so blisters won't come back when you least want to deal with them.