The blister may ooze and form a yellow crust. It can also sting or itch. And often it lingers for a week or ten days. But here's how to ease cold sore pain and make that blister disappear faster. Smear yourself with sunscreen.
Sunlight triggers one of every four cases of cold sores .
In studies, researchers at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and the University of California Hospital in Los Angeles found that patients prone to cold sores who applied sunscreen prior to ultraviolet light exposure got total protection. Those who didn't apply sunscreen got their usual number of new outbreaks. Replace your toothbrush. Your trusty toothbrush can harbor the herpes virus for days, reinfecting you again and again after the cold sore first heals. So toss your toothbrush as soon as you notice the beginning of a blister, advises Richard T. Glass, D.D.S., Ph.D., chairman of the Department of Oral Pathology at the Colleges of Dentistry and Medicine at the University of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City.