Antibiotics are often thought of as a common cold sore cure. In reality, using antibiotics (actually, they are anti-viral medications) as a cold sore treatment option may not be the best option for you. These sores are a symptom of the herpes simplex virus, and only appear when there is some trigger to make the virus active in your body.
What the antiviral medications actually do is treat the virus in your bloodstream in an attempt to lessen the length of the outbreak and prevent further symptoms, such as more sores, from appearing.
In reality, there is no real cure for this virus. The best medications available are effective in treating outbreaks and reducing the impact of a viral flare up. In many cases, there are some options available to those who have this virus that controls or limits the outbreaks to very manageable scale and frequency.
This brings us to the question on if using antiviral or antibiotic medications are really the best treatment options available for everyday management and use?
Antibiotic and antiviral medications, while effective the first several times you use them, are not the best long term solution. Over time, your immune system will start to build a tolerance for the medications, and the effectiveness of them will be lessened each time you take them.
Since they are actually not curing your cold sores or herpes simplex outbreak, give consideration as to whether using them is the right treatment option. If your Doctor has prescribed them, be sure to consult with him or her as to what other treatment options may be available and appropriate for you.