Mouth Herpes

What is Mouth Herpes?
Is mouth herpes contagious?
Mouth Herpes Symptoms
When to see a doctor?
Mouth Herpes Pictures
Mouth Herpes Treatment
Non-specific therapy
Anti-viral therapy
Mouth Herpes Home remedies

What is Mouth Herpes?

Herpes or Herpes Simplex Viruses is a viral disease resulting in fever blisters or cold sores infecting the mouth and face. Mouth herpes is mainly caused by Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) while the other virus of type 2 (HSV-2) causes Genital herpes. Mouth herpes primarily affects children of more than 6 months of age or who are aged 1-2 years but can affect adults as well. The inside mouth herpes being the target site of the virus results in painful red fluid-filled blisters or lesions on the tongue, lips, inside of the cheeks, and gums often accompanied with an itchy or burning sensation. Muscle pain and fever can also be suffered at a later stage. Inside mouth herpes could be dangerous if proper treatment is ignored.

It goes through three distinct stages before giving any indications of the occurrence of the infection. The three stages are:

Primary Infection: This is the first stage wherein the contagion reproduces upon entering from the mucous membrane or skin. Typical symptom is the appearance of oral lesions which may not be present initially resulting in an asymptotic infection. In this case due to lack of symptoms one will be unaware of the presence of an infection. The sores usually takes 21 days to form and become visible, then the blisters will persist up to 10 days before beginning to heal.
Latency: The virus attacks dorsal root ganglion, a mass of nervous tissue in the spine after moving away from the site it infected.
Recurrence: An outbreak can recur up to 4 to 6 times a year based on the lifestyle of an individual, emotional & physical stresses.

Is mouth herpes contagious?

Many people wonder— is the mouth herpes contagious? Often the Cold sores are ruled off by many as a common mouth ulcer. If not treated immediately, it has potential threat to spread to other parts of the body. Being highly contagious in nature it gets readily transmitted by sharing utensils, clothes, and toothbrush. Maintaining sexual contact, kissing and touching also leads to the spread of virus. It is likely to spread more when the virus is present with physical outbursts. It is less contagious if the virus is present but with no physical sign of lesions.

Prevention is necessary to avoid its spread, an infected person should avoid touching it and sharing their personal belongings with others. Wash hands quickly upon touching the lesion. This is important so as to minimize the chance of getting ocular herpes (herpes infection of the eye). Evade being near to young infants as their immunity being weak make them susceptible to the infection.

Mouth Herpes Symptoms

Symptoms of mouth herpes can be seen in many patients who are suffering from mouth herpes. Once contacted the virus generally remains asymptotic, without symptoms for certain time period called the incubation period. This for oral herpes usually lasts from 2 to 12 days and once the lesions appear they will last for another 15 to 21 days. On an average basis the incubation period persists for about 4 days in people. The vesicles being highly painful can lead to certain common flu like indication and the following are the mouth herpes signs. However, signs of mouth herpes differ from person to person and region to region:

Fever
Muscle ache
Burning or tingling sensation
Irritability
Fatigue
Depression

Because of the aforesaid common symptoms of mouth herpes, the disease is easily mistaken for some other type of infection such as canker sores (Aphthous ulcers). These are ulcers in the mucosa of mouth caused by adverse reaction to some bacterium or by allergies and are not a viral infection. However such disorders must be tested for herpes as well.

The other major symptoms of mouth herpes are:

Sores occur at the frontal portion of tongue, roof of the mouth, lips (herpes labialis), gums, inside of cheeks, gingival and palates.
It may be extended outside of the mouth to throat, nose and chin and cause the gums to bleed.
Swollen lymph nodes of the lower neck (Pharyngitis and Gingivostomatitis) accompanied with fever.
HSV-1 of pharynx leads to ulcerative fluid filled blisters of the tonsils or lower pharynx.
The pain is intense making swallowing, eating and drinking difficult.
Superficial abscesses of grayish coating can appear on tonsils of people who are above 20 years of age.
In severe conditions HSV-1 can spread up to other parts of body like eyes (herpes keratitis), hands (herpes whitlow) and even the central nervous system (herpes encephalitis). This is termed as autoinoculation which occurs at the time of primary infection if the body’s antibodies fail to render the virus dormant and it spreads out further.
Herpes keratitis can cause white burning sores on the eye lids and on the surface of cornea.
Herpes whitlow renders painful abscesses on fingers, thumbs, toes and nails.

Prior to the eruption of lesions the skin becomes subtly sensitive and begins to itch with a tingling sensation which is termed as “prodrome”. Gradually the lesions transform into blisters which ulcerate and crust over and can be extremely painful. The most common site of occurrence is lips leading to herpes labialis. Fluid is filled in these and due to certain minor shock or disruption they tend to break suddenly discharging the fluid. Upon secretion a red sensitive skin is left behind. The fluid is highly contaminated and can cause the spread of the disease further.

When to see a doctor?

You got to see the doctor when you notice the early signs of mouth herpes Though the sores will disappear by themselves in 2 to 3 weeks without the help of any treatment measures but it is advisable to consult a doctor if;

Recently you have suffered from some severe health condition that has given you a weakened immune system.
The cold sores persist and are not showing any signs of healing even after 21 days.
Frequency of recurrence is high
You are experiencing irritation in your hands, throat, eyes and neck.

Mouth Herpes Pictures

Picture 1 : Herpes simplex lesion of lower lip (cold sore)

Photo Source : lib.uiowa.edu

Picture 2 : Herpes Simplex Virus Infection (mouth)

Photo source : lib.uiowa.edu

Picture 3 : Mouth Herpes sores

Image source : healthadel.com

Mouth Herpes Treatment

The basic treatment for mouth herpes is classified in two groups:

One is aimed at alleviating the symptoms and is termed as non-specific treatment while the other type is anti-viral therapies whose primary objective is to speed up the therapeutic process and prevent its relapse. Remedies are cures should be taken seriously in order to get rid of mouth herpes.

Non-specific therapy

Lesions should be kept clean and dry
Refrain from touching them often, even if you do that wash your hands immediately.
Sharing utensils, cloths, toothbrushes, kissing, hugging, handshakes and sexual contact should be abstained from.
Any over the counter astringent namely campho-phenique or orabase which contains phenol can be used over the lesions to avoid painful bursting of the blisters later on.
Ensure consuming an insipid diet in order to avoid any irritation to the sores while eating.

Anti-viral therapy

Recently formulated medicines such as valacyclovir (Valtrex), Oral acyclovir (Zovirax) are recommended to minimize the frequency at which cold sores recur. If taken before the attack of infection in form of pills it will avert the HSV-1 from proliferating.
The duration of presence of the eruptions can be potentially reduced with application of topical antiviral ointments like acyclovir (Zovirax) or penciclovir (Denavir) on the affected areas.
Patient should apply penciclovir immediately within an hour of the occurrence of first signs of symptoms to possibly lessen the pain and prevent viral flaking. Application should be repeated at a rate of every two hours continuously for four days. Acyclovir cream can be utilized for the same purpose upon the first sign of itching.
The only FDA approved cream, Docosanol (Abreva) is to be applied at a rate of 5 times in a single day upon sings of pain. Though its benefits are yet to be established.

Homeopathic medicines can also be used to avoid any adverse effects of allopathic drugs and fuel the body’s own healing mechanism. They are approved by FDA and are custom made by the medic in the right proportion to provide immediate relief. One such complete natural product is Herpeset which is to be sprayed on the affected areas especially the tongue. The natural components are quickly absorbed in the blood stream.

Mouth Herpes Home remedies

Maintain hygiene as discussed above
Fingernails should be clipped regularly and kept clean
Drink lots of water
Apply a good sunscreen to avoid reoccurrence of HSV-1. Cover up exposed parts while moving out.
Apply ice packs on the affected areas as it tends to subside the pain potentially.
Asprin and Nuprin are some over the counter drugs that can be taken to reduce fever and inflammation. However asprin is not to be given to children. They can be administered acetaminophen.
Some consider pressing a warm tea bag over the lesions for about 30 minutes is beneficial.
Applying common salt, lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) or aloe vera gel speeds up the recovery.
Eat foods which are rich in lysine, an essential amino acid which produces disease fighting antibodies. It has been valuable in fighting against cold sores.
Consuming about 1000 mg of lysine in a single day will lessen the duration of existence of lesions.
Prunella Vulgaris, a self heal herb is beneficial in both HSV-1 and HSV-2.