The dreaded cold sore

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Perriann Rodriguez

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Do you get the dreaded cold sore on your mouth all the time? Can you link the occurence of the cold sore to certain events and situations? What remedies do you use to treat the cold sore?

Read about some home remedies that seem to work for cold sores. You might still get them, but they aren't as severe or they go away a lot faster.

Home Treatment for Cold Sores

My daughter just got back from a skiing trip late one night last week. It was super-freezing outside--probably well below zero air blasting on her face as she went down the hill.

She went to bed late that night. Sure enough the next day, she started to get a cold sore on her lip. Typically when she gets cold sores they will last for at least 7 days. They tend to get fairly large, itch and sometimes scab over.

So, I started to do some research online about treatment of cold sores. There are many different home treatments available that seem to be quite effective for some people.

Here are a few of them. We tried the Ice and Tea one and the toothpaste one. Unfortunately we did all the treatments at the same time so we aren't exactly sure which one did the trick. I think it is the Ice and Tea one.

1. Ice and Tea. Take 2 ice cubes and put them in a zip lock bag. Put the bag on top of your cold sore and keep it there until the ice cubes completely melt. Next, take a warm tea bag and place it on top of the sore. It says to repeat this as often as necessary. We have done it in the morning and night and maybe once or twice during the day.

2. Put toothpaste on it. I read somewhere about putting bleach on the cold sore. Bleach kills everything. This sounded a little scary to me. One alternate suggestion was to put toothpaste (one with whiteners in it) on the cold sore. We tried that the first night after the Ice and Tea Routine.

3. Nail Polish Remover. My daughter has not been brave enough to try this one. I'm sure it would probably sting quite a bit. It works for some people. They say to put nail polish remover on a Q-tip and place it on the cold sore--leaving it for a few minutes. I read about many cold sore sufferers that swear by this method. Some say that they do it as soon as they start feeling the itchy developings the precede the cold sore's appearance.

4. Lysine. There are supplements available that you can take that help with eliminating cold sores or reducing the severity of them. I have not fully investigated this option. Some swear by this approach as well.

These are just a few home remedies that you may want to try if you ever get a cold sore again. Maybe they will work for you and you say goodbye and good riddance to those nasty looking cold sores.