COLD SORES: STAGE 6 - CRUSTING

Cold sores, oral herpes, fever blisters

Cold sores, at this cold sore stage, will crust over with a yellowish large scab. The worst is over once you get past the open cold sore weeping stage.

The healing process of the cold sore begins, but this can be a long process. There is a lot of damage to be fixed. Swollen glands start to subside. The cold sores virus is traveling back to the nerve ganglia to hibernate again. The replication process is over, for a long time we hope.

The pain is still quite noticeable even though the cold sore is covered over. The nerve endings that were damaged by the cold sore heal slowly.

The cold sores crust or scab is usually quite large, hard and unsightly. As one lady put it "like a huge bug on my lip". When you move your lips, as in smiling, the cold sore scab will crack open - ouch! There are some over-the-counter medications containing softening oils that will help keep the cold sore scab more flexible. I recommend olive oil. It does a great job of keeping the cold sore crust softer and more comfortable - and it contains some anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties.

Better yet, if you can get some tea tree oil (I've seen it at kmart type stores) use it now. Tea tree oil doesn't smell too good - smells kind of like kerosene. It will keep the cold sore crust soft, but more importantly, it kills bacteria and cold sore virus like crazy.

You are still very contagious during this time. Whenever the cold sores crust cracks open, it will start to weep again. As you know by now, this cold sore fluid is teaming with cold sore virus. You must be very careful not to spread this cold sore virus to your eyes, or any other part of your body - or anyone else's body.

Cold sores, because of how contagious the herpes simplex virus is, can create genital herpes. And that's much worse than facial cold sores. Remember too, you are contagious from the first tingle until the last red spot is gone. On average, from my experience, this is about a 3-4 week period where you are socially sidelined with a cold sore.

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