Orajel Single Dose Cold Sore Treatment, 0.04 Oz, 2 Count

I've suffered from cold sores for over 30 years, and I've only used this once, but I am impressed. This product completely cut out the swollen, blistery part of the outbreak. Had I not used another medication in conjunction with this product, I think it would have been completely healed in 4 days. Anyone who has been plagued with this virus understands that that healing time is amazing. I did poke the blisters with a needle and cleaned with alcohol before application. Afterwards, I applied Zilactin, which I had never used before. I think it caused some scabbing that wouldn't have been there. But yeah, I'm very happy with the outcome of the Orajel Single Dose treatment.****UPDATE****It’s about to get real. I am an extremely frustrated, long-time cold sore sufferer. For most of my life, I ignored any type of treatment, because I figured, “What’s the point? I am stuck with this for forever. Why fight the inevitable?” About five years ago, as my outbreaks became more frequent and grew larger in size, I realized that my ignorance was not going to help. I began to research. I would see Abreva commercials, and think, “A cold sore gone in as little as two days? Phenomenal!” I have purchased Abreva quite a few times, and all that happens is I watch a large bump (cold sore blister) swell up under a whitened patch of this ointment. It certainly doesn’t make it better, and I am almost convinced that it makes it worse.What these companies don’t say is that even if the ointment works for you, this just means that the blister could be gone in two days. It doesn’t mean that the scab is going to be gone also, and the scab is the worst part. I want to walk you through how I treat a cold sore to show you what I mean:Phase One: Is that a tingle? Ut oh, get an ice cube (several ice cubes) hold it on that tingly spot until the cube disappears. Do this as often as I can. Gotta cool the skin and soothe those nerve endings. No cold sore. Yes! Ice works best for me at prevention. But what about when it does not work?Phase Two: I feel a bump! Yowza! Take some immune boosting tablets and pain reliever tabs. A blister is on the way, but is the fluid visible, or is it just raised and swollen? If no fluid, ice, ice, ice. If there is fluid then it needs to go! This is where the Orajel ColdSore treatment comes in. For many years, I would tediously pop each little blister that I could see with a sterilized needle. Apply alcohol to the punctured area until the fluid dried then repeat this step until I couldn’t see any more blisters. After it seemed like I had addressed all blisters I would hold alcohol on the whole area until I was sure any spreadable virus had died. After all, you don’t want to make things worse and help the virus spread. It was a painful guessing game, but it worked. Over time, I noticed that the outbreaks were less frequent, and the sores were smaller. Something I noticed about the needle method is every place that is poked leaves a noticeably darker scab area—it’s not worse looking than a swollen blister, but it still draws attention.Now, back to the Orajel ColdSore treatment… what it does is gently pops all the blisters and disinfects the area without all the needle poking. Whatever the pad is made of on the applicator is perfect for opening the skin to remove the blister without damaging the intact tissue on the lips or skin. Plus, it numbs the area just well enough that it’s not nearly as painful as the manual method. The reason why it is important to gently pop the blisters leads me to the next topic.Phase Three: The inevitable scab. : ( This is where you realize that everything is a lie. Assuming you have taken measures to deal with the blister, it is gone, and the swelling is less. It’s been two days, but guess what, you still have a blemish on your lip? Why? Because you are a human being… presumably with skin. I don’t know about you, but when a patch of skin goes missing on me I heal by scabbing. If any of these cold sore treatments claim to get rid of a cold sore (of noticeable size) in two days, and it does that, then give these people a Noble prize. They just cracked the code for healing wounds in record time. It a miracle. Really though, there’s now a scab, and there are ways to deal with this too, but it requires diligence. First, take a shower. Do you have to leave the house and you don’t want this scab bringing attention to you? Take that shower. The steam is going to soften the scab. While you are in the shower apply conditioner to the cold sore area to soften the scab even more. I have a nice, natural mint conditioner that I have been using. Leave that conditioner on the area for the whole length of the shower and rinse it off at the very end. When you get out, and towel off, the scab should be soft and white. Gently, and I mean, delicately, take a piece of tissue and wipe that white skin away. Do. Not. Be. Rough. If you begin to bleed then you used too much pressure or were too vigorous. If you cause damage to your flesh then everything will be worse. Trust me. I once took table salt and ground in into a sore and it went so deep I had a scab for almost three weeks. Don’t panic and hurt yourself like a dumdum.Next, you will want to artificially scab the area. There are a few products that do this. I use Zilactin, and it burns like heck for a second, but it’s fine because it helps me feel less weird. This product has an alcohol astringent quality about it, but it’s also kind of like a clear nail polish for your face. After all of this, you have a light pink area that will leave people guessing if you have a cold sore or maybe you just have some chapping. I am okay with this stage. If I am not leaving home, I will use this ointment that is just called Cold Sore Treatment. I found it by searching “Cold Sore Treatment Grand Rapids, MI” after originally finding it at a store. I haven’t used another cold sore product like this. It does a great job of “dissolving” the scab, but it’s not an absorbable ointment, so it looks chunky when applied. No treatment is as gentle and effective as the steam in the shower, so do that every day. I usually shower at night, but I switch to the morning during an outbreak, so I can relax for a bit a work before continuing the treatment. So cold sores scab more grossly than other scabs, because of-freaking-course they do. This is the tricky part that I was talking about earlier. You need the perfect balance of moisture and dryness throughout the day to make the scab less noticeable. I am always trying to achieve that light pink, keep em’ guessing look. So, now I switch to Carmex Classic Lip Balm and Campho-phenique. I use the Campho to target the area, and the Carmex like regular lip balm. I allow the area to dry for a few hours until it feels like it might crack if I open my mouth wide. This means that a new scab layer is forming. You will want to soften it with Campho or lip balm over a short length of time and gently wipe away the softened, white skin. If there is a dark spot that won’t wipe off then I will use tweezers and gently peel it away. Gentle. Delicate. Gentle. No dumdum moments now. I also apply the balm/Campho with my finger and then wash my hands. I try to avoid wondering if my balms have now turned into herpes sticks by not putting them directly on my lip – outbreak or not. Always wash those hands. What is more mortifying than the thought of spreading this awfulness around? I really can’t stand the thought.Phase Four: Dunzo Using the methods above, the scab will soon be so small that you won’t have to deal with it. For me, this is 3-6 days depending on the size. Every few years, I’ll get a whopper of a sore if I get sunburned badly enough that will last longer. But 3-6 days is reasonable compared to the 10 that I used to go through before I found this treatment method. In between outbreaks, I use alcohol-based mouthwash, floss regularly, exercise, and eat reasonably well. That all might seem like a pain, but there is nothing more painful to me than dealing with these sores.On a side note, I recently purchased a Virulite, FDA approved machine. I am not impressed with it so far, but I have only tried it once. I read about a diode light treatment that is available at some dentist offices that works along the lines of gently removing the blister and skin to lead to faster healing time (like the idea of how the Orajel ColdSore treatment works). It seems promising, but it is not yet available in my area. It is rumored that the diode light treatment could lessen/prevent future outbreaks. This is what we need. Prevention. Keep an eye out and hope that something like that is on the way.

I bought this instead of Abrevia after reading the reviews. It did numb the cold sore, but it also caused it to get a large scab which kept coming off, keeping the sore raw. I finally got some Abrevia and within 48 hours the cold sore was gone. I won't buy this again.

Slightly shorter healing time; but no miracle here. You still go through the usual period of discomfort and unsightly scarring. Nuts can be a trigger for some people. If I keep nuts out of my diet I have far fewer outbreaks.

I have suffered from cold sores for over 15 years. I got them as a kid as well as my brother (nothing weird, read on) and when my grandma told me she gets them I knew who probably kissed us who had them! Besides where it started, I have been miserable with them. They are DIRECTLY on my lip. Not off the side or on the edges and so they are very obvious, un-coverable, last for over 10 days, split and bleed, and cause me horrible insecurity. People have no shame asking me what happened to my lip and I usually blow it off and just say I have been stressed and get fever blisters (which is a euphamism for lip herpes, ew). They also occur as my hormones change/shift and yes, as a female, that means each month can be a possibility of an evil lip sore that will last for what seems like forever. I got tired of dealing with them and saw my doctor who merely prescribed Acyclovir which is the generic form of Valtrex. The bottle comes with 8 pills and she tells me to take two when I feel the blister coming on and then one per day during the longevity of the blister. Well, that did help the sore go away two days faster which at the time felt like a miracle but I would still get them! Then Abreva came out with that tiny tube of white paste that is sworn to decrease the time of the cold sore and my brother and I both gave it a shot. He is a pilot and the sun plays nasty tricks in triggering his blisters so he pretty much wears Abreva like it's chapstick. I tried it for years and it really didn't help me. I would tell myself it was better than nothing and who knows, maybe it helped a little? Well I got fed up paying $20+ for that tube and even though I carried it on me and put it on the minute I felt that itch, I would inevitably get a huge blister that bubbled, scabbed, and lasted for days. So I just gave up and faced the music. Then I saw a commercial for these single dose treatments and thought, its too good to be true, but heck why not try, I have nothing to lose. I picked up a pack and I thought it was pretty pricey for two little doses of treatment but still less expensive than Abreva. I tried it out on an incoming enemy and I skipped the whole blistering phase! That is the worst for me because oh my gosh can they get big! I have very full lips and the virus sees the extra room and goes for it. I took it a little late so the scab was still a little large, but I was happy that the time for healing was cut in half and saved me severe pain! I heard that the second time you use it it doesn't work. I tried it again and I got even better results! This time I caught it early and so I have a barely noticeable scab and it doesn't split or anything, it just looks like my lips were a little chapped. I bought more needless to say!

I use this and Abreva when I get cold sores. This treatment really takes a lot of patience, and a surprising amount of work and energy to make sure you've completely used up the solution, but it seems to really dry out cold sores. The healing time was similar, but the overall cold sore experience was not as awful as usual. It's a little pricy, but worth it. Abreva can be hit or miss, but with this product I feel like I'm doing some good.

I used this the day after I first got mt Cold sore. It immediately reduced swelling and appearance but by end of the day my cold sore came back as noticeable as ever. Stick to the lysine pills ans ointment. Reduces cold sore appearance in a day.

J’aime beaucoup pour feu sauvage