See a doctor or nurse practitioner in person if this is your first outbreak
Under $1/day to stop future outbreaks.
Immediate and suppression treatment available
Lemonaid is an online doctor’s office. We’re based in San Francisco but we help patients across America. We’re a convenient way to get the healthcare you need.
So long as this isn’t your first cold sore, our doctors or nurse practitioners quickly review your information and give you a prescription for an effective antiviral cold sore treatment.
Daily preventative treatment (‘suppression’)
If you get a lot of cold sores then daily preventative/’suppression’ cold sore treatment can reduce how frequently you get them and you need to select between the 2 anti-viral medicines we prescribe. Daily treatment can also reduce how long a cold sore lasts if you do end up getting one.
Preventative cold sore treatment only works if you take the medicine every day on an ongoing basis.
Both medicines are equally effective but are different in terms of how many times a day you take them. See the table below.
# pills at a time
how often
# of days
cost of medicine
1 pill
2 times a day
Take every day
$50/ 3 months with FREE delivery
1 pill
1 time a day
Take every day
$50/ 3 months with FREE delivery
Medicine for an immediate outbreak
If you’ve got a cold sore outbreak right now then prescription-strength cold sore medicine can reduce how long your cold sore outbreak lasts and you need to select between the 3 anti-viral medicines we prescribe.
All 3 are equally effective but are different in terms of how long you take them. See the table below.
# pills at a time
how often
# of days
est. cost of medicine
1 pill
3 times a day
5 days
$12
2 pills
2 times a day
1 day
$32
3 pills
1 time
$29
Some states require a video chat, we'll let you know.
If you’re getting treatment for an immediate outbreak, pick up meds at your local pharmacy.
Cold sores appear on and around your lips. Cold sores do not occur in your mouth.
The herpes simplex virus type 1 is the most common cause of cold sores. A huge number of people carry the virus, but only some people get cold sores. There isn’t a way to get rid of the virus that causes the cold sores.
Cold sores typically last around a week. Your first cold sore outbreak may last 2 weeks. You may feel a tingling before the cold sore appears. A cold sore looks different on different people. Typically there’s some kind of cold sore blister.
Some people get a cold sore every couple of years. Other people get a cold sore once a month.
Our medical team looks at the answers you give to our health questions to work out if you have cold sores. We’ll also look at your medical history to work out if it’s safe and appropriate to give you a prescription without meeting you in person.
Sometimes we’ll make the wrong call
We use evidence-based guidelines to decide when it’s safe to give you a cold sore prescription, but there’s 2 ways we can get it wrong. There’s a chance we’ll give you a prescription when you don’t actually have cold sores. If this happens you’ll take a medicine you don’t need. Alternatively, we may think you don’t have cold sores when actually you do. If this happens we’ll mistakenly decline to give you a medicine you should take.
We’re more likely to make the wrong diagnosis if this is your first cold sore outbreak. That’s why you shouldn’t use Lemonaid if this is your very first cold sore.
Alternative cold sore treatments
You don’t need to take the prescription cold sore medicines we offer because there are over-the-counter alternatives you can buy at the pharmacy. The over-the-counter alternatives are less effective, but also come with less risk of serious side-effects.
There are also prescription-strength cold sore treatments we don’t prescribe – such as creams - and you always have the option of getting a prescription for these from a doctor or nurse practitioner in person.
You’ve also got the choice of not taking any medicine whatsoever for your cold sores.
‘Off-label’ use of medicines for preventative treatment
Doctors throughout the US routinely give patients the cold sore medicines we prescribe for daily preventative treatment. But it’s important to know that the FDA hasn’t specifically approved the medicines we prescribe for daily preventative use. That said, it’s totally normal for patients to get these medicines from doctors or nurse practitioners for cold sores.
