Cold Sores Secrets! Easy Ways to Get Rid of Cold Sores Today!

Cold Sore infections are common eruptions of the skin and inside the mouth. They occur in two forms, systemic (or primary) and recurrent (or secondary). Both forms are self-limited but the recurrent/secondary form is common. The virus lies dormant within tissue in the trigeminal nerve. Given the particular features of this disease, control and symptomatic relief (rather than cure) is the usual goal of treatment and remedies for cold sores.

Cold Sore lesions can last from several days to two weeks. It is believed that after the first exposure of the virus, the virus migrates through some unknown mechanism along the sheath of the trigeminal nerve to the trigeminal ganglion, where it remains in a latent or dormant state. No infectious virus is produced within the trigeminal nerve during this period.

Reactivation of the virus may follow exposure to sunlight (fever blisters), exposure to cold (cold sores), trauma, emotional stress, dental treatment, or a dermatologic face peel. Severe recurrent disease can develop among immunocompromised patients, including HSV-seropositive patients who are in the cytoreductive phase of bone marrow transplantation treatment, patients receiving chemotherapy for malignant disease, and those with retrovirally based immunosuppression.

In the absence of clinical disease, up to 37% of healthy adults may display symptomatic shedding of intact HSV virus particles in saliva. The level of risk of infection from "shedders" to others has not been measured, although it is important, as the majority of HSV transmission occurs during asymptomatic shedding.

Primary gingivostomatitis

Primary disease usually is seen in previously uninfected children, although adults who have not been previously exposed to the hsv virus or who fail to mount an appropriate response to a previous infection may be infected.

Approximately 90% of the U.S. urban population is infected by the age of 4. Vesicular eruptions may appear on the facial and skin around the mouth, the vermilion portion of the lips, and the oral membranes. Inside the mouth, lesions may appear on any mucosal surface as painful and tender vesicles and ulcerations, unlike the recurrent form of the disease, in which lesions are confined to the hard palate and gum tissue. In addition to oral lesions, the primary infection is accompanied by fever, arthralgia, loss of energy, loss of appetite, headache, and enlarged glands.

The systemic primary infection runs its course in 7-10 days; at that point, healing occurs without scar formation. The virus may migrate to the trigeminal nerve and can go into a dormant state again.