Take care to avoid transmitting cold sores to others.
Interestingly, cold sores and fever blisters tend to be synonymously identified, as both are caused by exposure to the herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV1), and are highly contagious. Fever blisters appear as small fluid-filled blisters that eventually erupt; a process called "weeping." When this occurs, the blister will crust over, thus taking on the appearance of a sore. Cold sores and fever blisters are transmitted by kissing, shared cosmetics, oral sex, skin-to-skin contact, sharing towels and other bodily contact during an eruption. Making a distinction between the two is not only difficult, but not necessary.
Instructions
1. Wash your hands and avoid touching your face when stressed, run down or especially when ill. Fever blisters typically appear on or around the lips; though they also can appear on the chin and cheeks. Like cold sores, they are painful, but unlike cold sores, they often follow a fever. Fever blisters can be provoked by direct sunlight, stress to the body or immune system, hormonal imbalances or injuries to the mouth. Fever blisters take approximately seven to ten days to heal and are highly contagious once they erupt. The preliminary appearance of fever blisters is the small, fluid-filled blisters that eventually weep.
2. Keep your lips healthy and moist in the winter. Cold sores are lesions that manifest on the lips and can be painful if the skin is dry and cracked. This larger blister is recurrent and takes approximately 14 days to heal. Like fever blisters, cold sores typically appear during times of stress or when the immune system is compromised. Once a person is infected with the herpes simplex virus that causes cold sores, future outbreaks are likely to occur in the same spot.
3. Keep the area around cold sores and fever blisters clean and to treat it with gels or creams that help promote healing of such sores. Wash your hands after treating them and avoid touching the between treatments as they are most contagious once the sores erupts.
4. See your dermatologist if your cold sores or fever blisters fail to clear within the anticipated time frame or if the condition persists.
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