Abreva is a product that claims clinical tests can prove that it will increase the rate of healing and get you looking your best again quicker than rival products, but how do we decide if this is the right product?
Overview
If you have ever had a cold sore then you will know exactly how irritating it is and how long it takes to heal. A cold sore on the lip can last for weeks if left untreated. Abreva is a medically formulated cream that is applied directly onto the affected area and left to soak in and fight the harmful bacteria.
The Claim
Abreva states that their product is the only non-prescription cold sore treatment that is approved by the US Food and Drug Agency (FDA) and that it will “fight cold sores fast and land that knockout blow.” Further reading reveals that Abreva feels that their product will reduce the size, redness and soreness of the cold sore within days.
The product is said to offer a reduction in the time spent itching and scratching at that tingling pain that a cold sore radiates into the face. Abreva is claimed to be a safe product that can be used on children as young as 12 years old.
The Hype
Abreva’s official website shows photographs of models with a cold sore and then a second photo showing reduced redness and size with a caption claiming that the axons picture was taken 24 hours later.
There is of course no way in which to prove this other than buying the product but from reading multiple user reviews, the general consensus is that this product does live up to its claims and outperforms its rivals in its market.
The Cost
One tube of the Abreva medicine cream costs $29.95 and includes free delivery when bought from the website. Some superstores will frequently run promotions on medical creams where it can be bought cheaper.
The Commitment
The worry with all medical cold sore cream is that continued usage will make the body immune to the effects of applying the cream. This may become apparent to those unfortunate people that get continual cold sores but for the majority of people, cold sores occur just once or twice a year.
Once opened, the cream should be used within 12 months and applied to the infected area no more than 3 times a day. When purchased, the cream will arrive with a box and a manual that outlines the basic usage of the product. There are several circumstances under which the cream should not be applied and these guidelines should be followed for the sake of the users’ health.
Evaluation
Abreva works best when it applied to the cold sore in the early stages of the bacterial growth. This will prevent the rate and size that the cold sore will grow to in total. The product contains a substance named Docosanol. The formula that makes up Abreva contains 10% of Docosanol which is the active ingredient that prevents the good cells on the lip or face from becoming infected with the cold sore.
The price is perhaps a little on the high side for these types of treatment but cold sores are usually a genetic viral infection of the body that some people will get constantly, and other will not get in their lifetime. Therefore, for those people that have cold sores popping up on a regular basis, this product is worth a try.
Our Final Abreva Review
The only way that it can be seen whether or not Abreva is the best way to heal a cold sore is to try it. When a cold sore appears apply Abreva directly to the infected area and compare the size and soreness of the cold sore with the last one that appeared. From reading a multitude of online reviews, it appears that Abreva is very highly thought of by the consumer in most cases but there are the odd few that have not been satisfied with the product.
This will always be the case with any product. Given the number of people that have tried it, statistics say that there will be a few cases where it did not work, either from user error or other factors.
Our Recommendation
This product has received mostly excellent reviews from online reviewers and so it would get our recommendation. The best thing to do would be to buy the product and try it on your skin. Everyone will react differently to different formulated substances but the chances are that it will work for you.
Let’s face it, cold sores are embarrassing. If you’re not comfortable picking it up in stores, get some Abreva shipped to your door from Amazon.
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“Abreva works best when it applied to the cold sore in the early stages of the bacterial growth.”
Herpes is a virus, not a bacteria.
I spent 29 dollars on a little tube of the Abreva to see if it worked and well it didn’t work as well as i heard it did im really disappointed in it i wont buy any more oh yeah it only last for two different cold sores for the price its not worth it it did soothe the dryness thats it.
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Thanks VFR!
Just get a prescription for valtrex. If taken right away it prevents the outbreak.
It rids my cold sores before they get to the ooey gooey stage. Once I feel one coming on, I continually apply it until it is practically gone. I usually know I’m getting a cold sore because my lips stay chapped no matter what, and there is usually a spot on my lip that feels warmer than the rest. I’ve become familiar with the feeling.
Totally works for me. If I apply it early enough I can even prevent it from forming. The moment I feel that tingle, I make a mad rush to the nearest pharmacy to get that magic little tube. It’s damn expensive, but that $20 is so worth not having to deal with a full outbreak and it usually lasts at least a year or 2.
I love Abreva but you have to use it correctly. I only use a Q-tip to apply it because if you use your fingers you run the chance of irritating the fever blister more and added more germs to it. Also, when using your fingers you run the risk of spreading the fever blister to other parts of your mouth. It also works best if you use it the moment you feel the dreaded “tingle”. I will use Abreva in conjuction with an ice cube to stop/slow the growth. If I miss the tingle and it gets bigger than the Abreva does help quicken the healing. Cold sores are different from person to person so it really depends on how your cold sores manifest. I would say try it and if it doesn’t work then maybe there is something else out their for it.
Abreva used to work for me very well, but it no longer does. I used to put it on and it would shorten healing time significantly, and if I caught it early enough would go away before blistering. The last couple of times I caught one right away and put it on at the first tiny tingle. It still spread to a huge multi-blister sore and took 2 weeks to heal. Either my body has grown resistant to the active ingredient in Abreva that used to work, or they have changed their formula. Very disappointed.
worked for me. started at first tingle. It kept it to small red spots that weren’t noticeable to anyone but myself. by day 3 it was pretty much gone. However, I used way more than recommended, (like every hour) and slathered it on at night. I paid $21 at Walgreens, but I would have paid 10x that to not put my life on hold.
Been reading that people still have their cold sores for 10 days. If that’s so, the stuff doesn’t work. My bet is that it wouldn’t work, and I’d never try it because I don’t have $30 to waste on something that isn’t guaranteed to shorten the life of a cold sore by half.
Sorry you feel so bad . But pray because there is a God pray in Jesus name &believe, love to you ❤
Save money by going to the doctor and getting Valtrex – something that really works. If you rely on Abreva you will have the best and healthiest looking whopper cold sores around! If you use Valtrex or generic, they won’t develop at all if you catch them right away. You can also take it as a preventative therapy and pretty much eliminate them. With insurance they are as little as 5 dollars!
I totally agree. I carry Abreva in my purse at all times. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve applied it at the tiniest tingle or first little feeling that there might be a cold sore coming, and preempted a full blown outbreak. Nipped it in the bud. It works. You just have to know how to use it.
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I know this is an old comment but you are correct. Avoiding Arginine is an absolute! Nuts are the worst! I do not eat nuts at all-I basically tell people I am allergic to nuts- the level of Arginine in nuts is ridiculous! That goes for grains as well..like nutri-grain bars, oatmeal, , granola bars..also oranges …stay away if you are chronic suffer of colds sores..like 3 or more an year. You can go online and type in foods highest in Lysine and lowest in Arginine. Lysine is suppose to inhibit the virus and keep it dormant and Arginine triggers the virus. Cheese, almost all dairy, mangos, avacados, almost all meats are high in Lysine. Dont worry you wont miss out on Arginine..these foods contain Arginine as well just higher amounts of Lysine. Your diet should just be high in Lysine most the time. Some people take Lysine pills but in my experience taking Lysine pills and eating foods high in Arginine is counterproductive. Also Abreva only works BEFORE the cold are appears not after..putting it on a cold sore ..a developed blister ..is a lil too late. You should use it when you feel a tingle or a hot spot on your lip. Most people know when one is coming on and that is the stage to use Abreva..to help fault the formation as best as possible. Sometimes when my lips are dry I will lick them and then notice a red spot on a corner..I will quickly apply some Abreva..my goal is to keep the virus at bay. Once the blister pops up you can either try to dry it out or keep it moisturized…everyone has their method.
I never thought that this cure will work but Been diagnosed of herpes is just like been through hell. since 4 years ago i have been diagnosed of Herpes simplex, ever since my life became a total disaster, Curing herpes is now possible because I never thought of it due to the scam all over the internet. I got to know about it through my friend who got herself cured by DR.Odudu. I received my remedy from DR.Odudu through a courier service and today I am totally cured from herpes .
UNBELIEVABLE BUT TRUTH!!! We all know that Herpes is a sexually transmitted virus that primarily infects the mouth and the genitals, I have been diagnosed with HPV and Herpes. 2 life long diseases ( or so doctors say )..I couldn’t help but feel that these doctors nowadays are only in it for money and don’t really care for our health so i feel like they don’t tell you everything you could possibly know to give you a full recovery because if you’re completely healthy and don’t need a doctor..how will they get paid..( get the picture ?) With that being said, after my long nights of research I ended up in this Grat Herbalist Doc email telling him my story and He vowed to help me, which personally gave me more hope than my doctors did. He goes on to tell me about him being a herbalist and his temple in Africa..to get more information about it you should email him via ( drodiaherbalistcenter @ gmail . com)..Better to know than to be blind of other paths that could have been right in front of us for thousands of years and we were to brainwashed to notice..most people are so afraid that everything is fake because there are many people trying to scam and profit off of our hurt and pain..you have the right to be skeptical about everything but don’t be naive..How many coincidences can there be before it isn’t a coincidence anymore?..I don’t know about you but i’m completely determined to get this mess out of my body not treat it and feed it for the rest of my life. if you are having any type of this disease or infection like HIV,CANCER OR ANY disease kindly email doctor Odia for cure:( drodiaherbalisthelpcare @ hotmail . com )
Is the acyclovir gel cause I’m taking the pills and its not working for me. Is the gel better.
same… i meant sample.
not for me. complete waste of money. look at the results of the same. 25% healed in 2.5 days vs. 4.1. silly. that could have happened regardless. its hocus pocus for most people. dont waste your money.
A highly apropos nickname for such poor grammar. It’s self-evident who should “shut up”, for you’ve certainly demonstrated a plethora of things that you don’t know. “Claims” are quite different than “facts”… I can claim to be an armadillo rancher all day long but that still does not make it a fact.
The original comment to which you replied is quite correct: I am embarrassed for those that write such articles that demonstrate their lack of research, for this is NOT a bacterial infection, period. There are two herpes simplex virus strains that cause this, HSV-1 and HSV-2. Anyone who’s ever taken high school biology should recognize the difference between bacteria and virus. Unfortunately, in this day and age, my dog or cat or stuffed jackalope can write and post a thesis online and it will then automatically be considered “fact”.
Abreva does help, but if you really want to minimize the duration, severity and discomfort of cold sores you should get a prescription of valacyclovir to carry around. At the first tingle – even the slightest thought that it might be a cold sore – you take a dose and another 12 hours later. It will stop the sore from becoming full blown. You’ll experience that right away, if you know how quickly cold sores go from nothing to no-doubt-about-it ugly blister. Instead it remains a small bump which will still be a sore but nothing in comparison to what it would be untreated or even what it would be treated with Abreva. Ever since I first used valacyclovir I’ve never looked back. I always carry a dose and immediately take it at any sign. Huge improvement. Using Abreva as a topical backup may further reduce it – but on it’s own it’ll never do what valacyclovir does. If you’ve ever had a cold sore, you will have them again. It’s a systemic virus that’s joined you for the ride and you might as well have the prescription to manage it.
This website, “Does it Really Work?” wherein the review says, “the only way to know is to try it.” What is the point of this place? Why bother having a website? Here I thought this might actually be a place where paid reviewers are barred from plugging the product and I might actually find some data to help me through my soft crisis. It’s infuriating to think that someone put this much effort into something so unhelpful. The only redeeming thing about this ridiculous waste of time is the comments section because at least that area is populated by people united in misery.
I’m trying ice and CP. The human body is a miserable prison, life is hell, there is no god, I eagerly await the day when my consciousness can be uploaded onto a hard-drive and I can throw my unwieldy body into a dumpster.
Here’s a suggestion which I use when I feel the cold sores coming, ice your lip and often. It will kill the virus, and if you do it early enough your cold sores won’t erupt. I also use Abreva, and also I get a prescription for Acyclovir. The ice does work. I picked the method up from researching blogs. BTW, nothings perfect, but I think you’ll find it helps. Good luck fellow sufferers.
Years ago I would get a cold sore maybe once or twice a year. It would do the usual progression…7-10 days of active lesion. The whole process. I finally decided to try Abreva. I always started applying it at the first sign of something going on, usually a slight swelling. It has been about 5 or six years I’ve been using it, and I haven’t had even one full blown cold sore. I would feel the usual indications and start to apply it several times a day. The swelling would start to go down and the sore would disappear before developing and scabbing. For me, personally, it’s absolutely worth the price.
Hi Josh,
I tried Abreva years ago and it actually made my cold sores a lot worse. I put it on at the first sign of tingling and it BLEW UP into a huge one within a matter of hours. It felt like it made it happen FASTER, like all the moisture was feeding the cold sore! 😮
However, I have been using Campho-Phenique for my cold sores and it comes with a lot more to it, and my cold sores behave a lot better. Campho-Phenique has drying effects, so I think it’s better used at the first sign of a cold sore (like they say to do with Abreva). It can work on full-blown cold sores, too, to prevent it from growing, but it does tend to get rather uncomfortable as it dries the area and can lead to cracking/bleeding if you’re not careful. I had a cold sore tingle yesterday, applied Campho-Phenique just once (along with medicated chapstick on the rest of my mouth to prevent the rest of it from going that route, since I notice that when my lips are dry, it sometimes causes the cold sore to come), and I can tell it’s not going to grow. It’s small and dry on my lip and it’ll disappear soon. 😀
As others have said, though, I think the formula of the medicines may affect some differently than others. For me, Abreva didn’t work, and CP does. I sort of lucked out, since CP is much cheaper. 😀
By the time you need Abreva it’s too late. Abreva doesn’t CURE anything. Abreva only treats the symptoms. Maybe it lessons the time it takes to heal….my experience is that it does LITTLE.
A tiny little tube is VERY expensive….(1″ tube with less than 1/10th of an ounce is $16+)
NOT WORTH IT.
The first two times I ever got a cold sore I used over the counter Walgreens/CVS/Campho-phenique products and my cold sore lasted for 2 weeks. This most recent time, I noticed the red tingly bump on Saturday morning, rushed out to the store and decided to try Abreva. I began application immediately and as directed. By Saturday evening I was blistered. I kept using Abreva and was taking L-lysine vitamins every day. It is now day 5 and the blister is gone, already scabbed and fallen off, and now just a somewhat minor red area where the skin is still healing. This combo of Abreva and L-lysine vitamins saved my life! Would definitely recommend Abreva and will use again if needed. I could cry tears of joy because I am 90% healed in 5 days compared to the awful 12-14 days that my last two breakouts took to heal. The ONLY con I have is that there is an ever so slight burning sensation whenever I applied the Abreva cream to the cold sore before the blister and scab formed. I believe this is probably because the skin is very tender and now in a healing stage which makes it more sensitive, however, the burn feeling is so minuscule that it doesn’t bother me at all. I just wanted to mention it in the event that a person has sensitive skin as it might affect them more. Regardless, this product is totally worth it!
“Bacterial infection” lmao… the uneducated is real in this one.
I can get Aciclovir for half the price over the counter in Germany and Brazil. Aciclovir shows effect 1 day after the first application and stops the blister growth, drying them out and making them crumble away. I bought Abreva yesterday almost falling over backwards when I saw the price. I applied it generously several times and also overnight. The blisters are twice as large today. This is not working at all.
It costs $29 at Walgreens. So, next time I will go to Target. It does work. I noticed that once I started using it, my lip didn’t get worse. It doesn’t hurt anymore either.
I’ve found the Abreva works okay and reduces the severity of the cold sore. Cold sores are cause by the Herpes virus, not a bacteria (wish it was, they can be killed) and that is why is reoccurs. Andre and Jackie are correct. Innocent mistake by the author. One thing I have found helps quite a bit is lessen the intake of Arginine. It is found in poultry, some cheeses, dairy, fish and many nuts. I like nuts and try to eat little if any for my condition. Unfortunately it is not a bad supplement and the body needs it also.
I’m sorry, but I stopped reading the article at “… bacterial infection.”
Cold sores are caused by the HSV-1 virus, not a bacteria. Please educate yourself on the topics you are writing about before doing so.
You should also listen to some who claims cold sores are caused by bacteria. Just shut up and don’t post what you think you know.
Cold sores are not a bacteria as stated at least twice in the article. They are the Herpes virus.
It does work! And it costs $19.99 in most stores not $30. I got a tube on sale for $15. It does in fact speed the healing time. My son uses it too. (life long sufferer of cold sores.)
LS really hit it on the head with it being a virus that you cannot cure the cause of them but rather, stop the outbreaks by targeting them once they occur. I’ve seen Abreva before but never gave it a chance because it’s too expensive and as Mike said, only provides a small amount for it to be truly useful. If I can find something that has a larger amount contained within it and cheaper. I would buy that instead. But I suppose it’s worth it because it’s high quality, but because the amount too minuscule use it wisely.
Unfortunately, I suffer from cold sores from time to time. They are embarrassing and you just want them to go away as soon as possible. Abreva tends to be fairly expensive for even a very little amount, but it is a potent medication. Unfortunately, this will not get rid of cold sores entirely. You still have to go through the whole torturous process. But with Abreva, it will heal quicker and the sore will not be as unsightly as it would have been if left untreated. This is a high quality product, although it is astronomically expensive, so be sparing. And I recommend the standard tube over the pump action dispenser, which doesn’t last as long.
The problem with cold sores is that you cannot cure the virus that causes them. Instead, you have to deal with trying to thwart the outbreaks or cure them once they appear. There are so many products to choose from at the pharmacy that all claim to speed healing time. Abreva, though, is the only one that actually contains an FDA-approved, patented ingredient that helps to protect the healthy cells in your lips, thus preventing the outbreak from spreading. The key to making it work most effectively is catching a sore before it even reaches the surface of the skin and forms a blister.