Courtesy photo
Vanessa Williams and her daughter, Sierra, carry a banner to celebrate National
Recovery/Wellbriety Month at the annual Hands Across the Bridge event in
Newport, Ore., in September.
The Siletz Community Health Clinic property is 100 percent tobacco-
free. The policy prohibits all tobacco use by everyone – no smoking in your
Photos by Diane Rodriquez
car, in the parking lot or on clinic property.
We do not provide any cigarette disposal units, so please keep all of your
tobacco products in your personal vehicle. We do not have designated smok-
ing areas, so no smoking in the parking lot, in your car or behind the building.
Thank you for helping to keep our clinic tobacco-free and clean.
TenasIllaheeChildcareCenter•Siletz,Oregon•Sept.24,2012
Several children receive a hands-on experience in cement by leaving handprints in
what became the base for a bench along the walking path by the child care center,
Siletz Rec Center and Tillicum Fitness Center. Despite encouragement from several
adults, some kids just didn’t want to do this, but those who took part didn’t seem to
mind getting dirty (and quickly cleaned up in a nearby bucket of water).
Tooth Talk: Herpes simplex virus and those pesky bothersome cold sores
By Mary Ellen Volansky, EPDH, MS
Do you agree with me that cold sores
feel huge, even when they are just a small
bump on our lip?
Yes, we know it will grow and as it
does it seems to take on a life of its own,
shouting to everyone, “Hey, look at this
thing on my lip!”
To my way of thinking, this is an
unnecessary addition to the global dis-
comfort, and even shame, many of us
experience with a cold sore.
We have nothing to be ashamed of!
Are we ashamed if we have a cold? No.
Are we ashamed of having the flu? No.
Then why are most of us ashamed if we
have a cold sore?
Most of us got the initial herpes sim-
plex virus (HSV-1) infection when we
were young children. As Medline Plus
reports, “Most people in the United States
are infected with this virus by age 20.”
We did nothing to acquire this virus,
nothing. There – it is said and it is true!
Will that stop the shimmer of shame that
pops up along with the blisters? I doubt
it, but I can hope.
The weakest and first signal of a
cold sore is the tingling inside of the lip
or a slight tenderness, then the tingling.
Tingling? That is the word they give to
the feeling that a nerve is worming about
inside our lip.
You then just want to massage the
area – don’t. Woe the urge to touch them,
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Siletz News
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to soothe them. Keep your hands and
tongue away; allow the blister to work
its own course.
Keeping our hands away from a cold
sore during its 10- to 14-day existence is
important. Our hands carry bacteria that
can additionally infect the cold sore, mak-
ing it larger and last longer.
The course of a cold sore can include
redness, swelling, pain, blisters and the
most annoying of symptoms, the button
(as I call it) or scab.
Because the scab is dry, this button
catches your tongue as you talk. Or it
catches your tongue when, as tongues
are wont to do, you check the scab to
make sure it is still there –as if you don’t
already know it’s still there. And if this
button comes off too soon, the removal
will lengthen the healing time and add
more discomfort for you to endure.
When this weakest of cold sore symp-
toms, tingling, returns a day or two into
an outbreak, you know you are in for a
whole new collection of blisters.
Herpes simplex type 2 (HSV-2) usu-
ally causes genital herpes. It can some-
times spread to the mouth during contact
with infected body areas.
Skin contact is not the only means
of transmission of the HSV-2 virus. You
can get it by touching items used by an
individual who is infected. Touching such
common everyday items as razors, towels,
dishes and other shared items can cause
November 2012
the transfer of this virus. It can be spread
to children during regular daily activities.
Back to the HSV-1 virus, which has
two stages. The first is primary herpetic
gingivo-stomatitis. This is the initial infec-
tion that begins with “high temperature,
malaise, irritability, headache and pain in
the mouth. This is followed in one to three
days by numerous coalescing vesicles that
rupture within 24 hours, leaving painful
small, round, shallow ulcers covered by a
yellowish-grey pseudomembrane (cover-
ing) and surrounded by an erythematous
(red) halo. These ulcers gradually heal in
10-14 days without scarring.” 1
The second stage of this infection
is call herpes labialis. This is the stage
most of us are in if we get cold sores. It
is reactivation of the HSV-1 virus that
rests in nerve endings. This reactiva-
tion is associated with fever, emotional
stress, menstruation, light exposure, cold
weather, mechanical trauma, etc. 2
How many times have you experi-
enced one of these events and not gotten
a cold sore? It appears it is caused by
everything and nothing. The book I used as
reference doesn’t even say “caused by” but
used the words “associated with” instead.
Blisters or rash may form on your
gums, lips, mouth and throat. Symptoms
include: 3
•
Itching of the lips or skin around
the mouth
•
•
Burning near the lips or mouth area
Tingling near the lips or mouth area
Now the help – yes, there is some.
For people who get frequent cold
sores, antiviral medicines are available
by prescription – acyclovir, famciclovir,
and valacyclovir. These medicines work
best if taken at the first warning signs of a
cold sore before any blisters show them-
selves. A few people who get cold sores
all the time take one of these medicines
all the time.
There are antiviral skin creams too.
They have limitations, are expensive and
only shorten the outbreak by a few hours
to a day. 4
Next month I’ll cover the alternative
medicine options available for treating
and preventing cold sores. The one I use
is lysine. There are more, even a couple
of options that have been helpful for
infections that are resistant to acyclovir.
I’ll cover what they are and the limited
research available about them.
One last comment, “Canker sores are
not contagious.” 5
1
2
3
4
5
Color Atlas of Oral Disease by George Laskaris,
1994, p. 116
IBID, p. 118
Medline Plus at nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/
ency/article/000606.htm
nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000606.
htm. page 2
nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003059.
htm