cold sore or something else

[39holding]

my son has been sick for the past 5 days with flu/cold symptoms.  He was chewing on his lower lip and has developed a huge yellowish sore on his lower lip (3-5cm)  He does get frequent canker sores, but this looks different.  How do i tell what it is?

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
From the symptoms it does not look like a cold sore but like a friction bump caused due to chewing of lip. But to completely rule out cold sore, You need to get some investigations like sample from the sores to identify the virus, culture analysis, Tzanck smear, antigen and antibody studies and blood sampling for antibody studies done to confirm the diagnosis. My sincere advice would be to consult a dermatologist.

It is very difficult to precisely confirm a diagnosis without examination and investigations and the answer is based on the medical information provided. For exact diagnosis, you are requested to consult your dermatologist. I sincerely hope that helps. Take care and please do keep me posted on how you are doing.

[Dragon477]

Hmmm..try and get him to stop chewing on it..and put some meds on it,
look at it..as it heals.It is hard to tell what somthing is,if its been picked at
or irritated.