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Treatment Of Herpes Labialis: Repetition Of A Study Comparing Two OTC Drugs And Untreated Controls And Comparing The Outcomes Of Each Study

McCarthy JP*,Browning WD,Bowman JP

Statement of the Problem: In addition to the patient's pain and disfigurement, many dentists and hygienists are reluctant to treat a patient with an active oral herpes lesion. It is of mutual interest to both patient and the dental staff to find an effective treatment. We report the results of a repetition of a previously published study comparing the outcome of treatment using Abreva (Glaxo Smith Kline, Parsippany NJ) and Viroxyn Professional (Quadex Pharmaceuticals, Salt Lake City, UT) and using untreated cold sores as a control.
Methods and Materials: A cohort of people who were naive to the first study (n = 186)a were surveyed and asked to retrospectively report the amount of time their cold sores needed to heal without treatment and how long the pain lasted without treatment. These same questions were then asked of the participant's using a standardized outcome response form to report following treatment with Viroxyn Professional and Abreva. In addition there were participants who were naive to Abreva (n = 55). This cohort was analyzed separately for outcomes using Viroxyn versus untreated cold sores.
Results: Participants in both the Abreva and Viroxyn groups reported significant improvement in outcome versus untreated cold sores with Abreva offering a three day advantage over control and Viroxyn offering a seven day advantage over control (all t-tests; all p < 0.001)b.
Conclusion: When compared to untreated controls, both use of OTC drugs resulted in a significant reduction in time to healing and time to loss of discomfort. Additionally, Viroxyn offered a significant reduction in time to healing and time to loss of discomfort versus Abreva. When the study metric data were compared for the two separate studies, no differences were found. The outcome of the second study was the same as that of the first. an = number of participants in the study bp = p-value. A p-value of < 0.05 is considered statistically significant. When p = 0.05 or less, there is a 5% chance, or less, that the observed outcome happened by chance.