Herpes In The Mouth-What to look for
Oral herpes, commonly known as herpes in the mouth, is a caused by the herpes simplex virus, which million and million of people carry in their bodies, even if they don’t know it. If you’ve ever had a cold sore, or had a friend or family member who suffered from cold sores, that was one form that herpes in the mouth can take. Technically, visible cold sores aren’t actually inside the mouth in most cases, but somewhere just outside, like above the lip. But it’s still considered to be oral herpes. Not only are cold sores unattractive, they can also be quite painful. And people who get them tend to get them over and over again.
However, the herpes simplex virus doesn’t cause oral herpes or other outbreaks in the vast majority of people who contract the virus. The virus is extremely contagious, and can be passed quite easily through casual contact. Doctors and other medical experts believe that just about everyone on the planet has been infected with herpes simplex by the time they reach their early twenties. Yet most of them will never develop cold sores or other symptoms of oral herpes. Doctors don’t know exactly why this is the case, as viruses and their effects on humans are one of the least understood aspects of modern medicine.
Even the people who develop symptoms will vary widely in the degrees to which they have outbreaks of oral herpes. There is a vast spectrum when it comes to outbreaks and severity. Some people will have one cold sore, one time, and then the virus will become dormant, and they’ll never have another attack. Others will have fairly regular outbreaks with large and painful sore inside or outside their mouth for most of their lives. And there are millions of people who will fall in the range in between these two extremes. (One thing to keep in mind is that stress tends to trigger outbreaks of herpes in the mouth. ) There’s no know cure for oral herpes, but there are treatments which can bring a lot of relief to someone who suffers from it.
