What To Use On A Cold Sore On Your Lips? Read On!
Congratulations for using your fingers to look up information on what to use on a cold sore on your lips rather than pick at your cold sore. If you are a kid and this is the first time you have had cold sores, you really need to go to the doctor to get prescription medication. You can also take ibuprofen or acetaminophen if the sores are especially painful. Cold sores (also called fever blisters) can't be cured, but they can be suppressed (kind of like how diabetics live with diabetes).
Adult Treatment
If you are an adult and wondering what to use on cold sores on your lips, then you have some more over the counter options available to you. You can use the balm or ointments in the pharmacy (sometimes in the toothpaste aisle) that claim to be just the thing to use on a cold sore on the lips. These medications include numbing agents, moisturizers and compounds to help halt any more cold sore formation.
Home Remedies
If you can't get to the doctor or the pharmacy, here are some suggestions as to what to use on a cold sore on your lips to help get you through to the doctor's appointments. These work with varying results. These home remedies work to dull the pain, but can't really help manage the herpes virus, which is the cause of your cold sores. You need to go to a doctor for that.
You can use ice to dull the pain, but monitor carefully. Only keep it on for five to ten minutes or you may risk losing your lips to frostbite. The ice works especially well during the stage right before the cold sore appears, often called the "tingle" stage, except it usually feels a lot more annoying than the word "tingle" suggests.
What else to use on a cold sore on your lips? How about a used tea bag? This would be for black tea, as that contains the tannic acid that helps kill pain and kills some germs. You could also try a used chamomile tea bag, which also has germ-killing and pain killing properties. If you are allergic to ragweed, stay away from chamomile. Obviously, use the tea bags only after they've cooled down a bit.
Petroleum jelly (aka "Vasaline") can be used after the cold sore has formed on your lip to help with the pain and keep it from cracking and spreading the herpes virus all over the place.
