Cold sores can really dampen your mood, especially when you’ve got a few dates lined up for the weekend. Cold sores are the symptoms that manifest themselves due to a number of reasons. The primary one happens to be because of the virus called herpes simplex type-1 which stays in your body forever if you happen to get infected. If you want to know how to get rid of a cold sore, then this article will help you to do that with a few simple methods.
Before you try out any method for getting rid of cold sores, it’s important that you know some of its most common causes. Cold sores can easily be prevented if you know what the triggers are flu, colds, extreme weather, stress, hormone fluctuation, and greasy foods.
Avoid Touching
The first and most basic curative of cold sores is that you should always try to avoid touching them. Rubbing and scratching will only spread the bacteria around your face and you’ll find it harder to cure it. In short, cold sores are likely to disappear faster if you don’t touch them at all. This happens to be the topmost tip on how to get rid of a cold sore. Physical contact is the reason why a lot of people are easily infected. The herpes virus is highly contagious and rubbing it with your fingers will spread them onto other parts of your body and other people. If you felt some burning or itching and you inadvertently touched the cold sore, try to wash your hands thoroughly.
Cleaning
Another way to help get rid of cold sores is through proper cleaning. Use a washcloth along with some hot soapy water. The soap in the water helps to minimize further infection and the heat from it sort of acts as a sterilizer. The pus-like fluids that’ll break out from the cold sores are going to act as a transport for the herpes virus to spread further, so proper cleaning with soapy hot water is a good solution. Cleaning this way happens to be a fast and easy method on how to get rid of a cold sore as well as helping to alleviate any itching and burning symptoms. Just make sure that you don’t over-scrub the sore or it’ll cause further irritation and infection.
Draining the Pus
It is sometimes necessary to drain the pus inside the cold sore. Use a needle that’s dabbed in alcohol to carefully puncture the sore and drain the pus out of it. It’s important that you exercise extreme caution with this. Use a clean tissue paper to soak up the pus liquid. Don’t wipe it or you’ll accidentally spread the virus further. Dip a cotton ball in alcohol and dab it onto the open cold sore. This may hurt a bit but it helps to kill the remaining virus inside the open wound.
Preventing a cold sore from happening in the first place is the most effective way of how to get rid of a cold sore. Being stressed out all the time helps to trigger the symptoms of the herpes virus so it’s best that you relax whenever you can. Also, keep your immune system healthy enough by consuming a proper diet so as to get rid of cold sores as fast as possible.