Causes, Symptoms and Treatment of Cold Sore Eye Symptoms

Cold sores are caused by a variant of the herpes simplex virus. Typically, cold sores occur in the oral cavity, around the mouth and lips. However, they can also appear near the eyes. This infection has the same root cause but the virus simply affects a different area by accident when it becomes activated.

So, a cold sore in the eye could be caused by an infection in the mouth. Likewise, a cold sore in the mouth can be cause by an infection of the eye.

Symptoms and Signs

Cold sore eye symptoms might seem to appear similar to those of the cold sores that typically appear inside the mouth; however, there are a few key differences between these two types of cold sores. These differences are caused by the job of the infected area and how each system works. Hence, in the eye, cold sore eye symptoms will affect vision, so that things may become blurry if you have a cold sore withing your eye.

The eye may become very watery and constantly tear up, redness may occur, and as with other cold sores, there may be pain of the infected area. The infected eye may develop an ulcer. If the infection is in a location close the eye, a blister can develop and cause the eye to have these cold sore eye symptoms.

Treatment

To treat cold sore eye symptoms, it is important to treat the underlying virus. Since one's eyes are moist, they are an ideal location for the herpes virus to live and prosper. Hence, you should ask your doctor for a medicine that will treat both cold sore eye symptoms and the herpes cold sore virus. While completely curing the virus is not possible, it is possible to control the rate at which it grows and the recurrence of infection.

Antiviral pills are an effective way of managing the virus in the body. The virus will be inactive in your system until your immune system is weakened through stress or sickness. Cold sore eye symptoms are easy to treat, but to prevent them from recurring, it is important to focus on treating the herpes virus that causes them.

Frequent cold sore eye symptoms can have negative effects on the eye and cause scarring which could permanently affect your vision.