Cold Sores, What are Cold Sores?

Cold Sores

Cold Sores are also known as Fever blisters. They are usually differentiated from other types of sores by way of observing their appearance and location. Cold sores are usually found on or at the edge of a person’s lip.

They may also be found on the facial skin near a person’s mouth. It has been observed that each new cold sore breakout will typically form in essentially the same location as any previous cold sore outbreaks.

What are Cold Sores?

Cold Sores usually run their course in 8 to 12 days. There are total five stages for their development. They take the following forms during the five stages.

Day 1-2: It is known as the Tingle Stage or The Prodrome Stage.

In most of the cases, the person’s first indication that a cold sore is developing is that they notice a sense of soreness, tautness or swelling in the location where their cold sore will ultimately form. Sometimes, it has been observed that this same area will becomes slightly reddened.

Day 2-3: It is known as the blister stage.

The first readily visible sign of cold sore formation is the appearance of several fluid filled blisters. Usually these blisters are very small in size. They are even the thickness of a dime.

It has been found that these blisters are usually formed is no larger than about the size of a nickel. In certain cases, the individual blisters, coalesce, that is join with each other to form a single large blister.

Day-4: It is known as the weeping stage or The Ulcer Stage. Cold sore blisters usually rupture soon after they have formed, resulting in a shallow reddish ulceration whose surface becomes gray.

This ulcerative phase of cold sore formation can be its most painful stage. This is also the stage during which a cold sore is most contagious.

Days 5-8:- It is known as the crusting stage.

The those facial areas where a cold sore skin is not kept wet by moisture from the mouth, then the ulcer will become dry and scab over with a brownish crust.

This scabbing formation is often accompanied by an itching or burning sensation. The scab itself will often crack or break, which is turn can cause bleeding.

DAY 9-12: The final healing stage. As the time progresses, so is the cold sore’s healing. Usually a series of scabs will form on the lesion, each one flaking off before it is replaced by a new one.

Each new scab will be smaller than the previous one until finally the cold sore resolves itself fully, it most cases without scarring.

Cold sores contain the herpes simplex virus, if there virus particles are transferred to others they too can become infected.

On common route by which the herpes virus is transmitted to others is by way of direct skin to skin contact such as kissing some one or even just brushing against their lesion. The most contagious phase of a cold sore’s formation is when its blisters rupture, that is in the weeping stage.