Oral Herpes Symptoms

• Incubation period: For oral herpes, the amount of time between contact with the virus and the appearance of symptoms, the incubation period, is 2-12 days. Most people average about 4 days.
  
  
• Duration of illness: Signs and symptoms will last 2-3 weeks. Fever, tiredness, muscle aches, and irritability may occur.
  
  
  • Pain, burning, tingling, or itching occurs at the infection site before the sores appear. Then clusters of blisters erupt. These blisters break down rapidly and, when seen, appear as tiny, shallow, gray ulcers on a red base. A few days later, they become crusted or scabbed and appear drier and more yellow
    
    
  • Oral sores: The most intense pain caused by these sores occurs at the onset and make eating and drinking difficult.
    
    
    • The sores may occur on the lips, the gums, the front of the tongue, the inside of the cheeks, the throat, and the roof of the mouth.
      
      
    • They may also extend down the chin and neck.
      
      
    • The gums may become mildly swollen and red and may bleed.
      
      
    • Neck lymph nodes often swell and become painful.
      
      
    • In people in their teens and 20s, herpes may cause a painful throat with shallow ulcers and a grayish coating on the tonsils.