HAVE A TOOTHACHE? Wear these fish bones around your neck, repeat a chant, and drop a few pears into the river!
These ridiculous toothache remedies were about in the Middle Ages. In the olden days before modern dentistry people would try anything to relieve the pain from a toothache or gum infection. Despite the advances dentistry has made in our understanding of how to treat toothaches some people still have some bizarre ideas about toothache and how to cure it.
Toothache Remedies
Around the world in both modern and ancient times there have been many unusual methods for relieving toothaches. One of the most common was the belief that toothache was caused by a ‘tooth worm‘ that had burrowed its way inside a tooth. To coax the worm out, people would inhale smoke, smear their teeth with honey, and swish with all kinds of disgusting rinses. Others include:
- Putting both stockings on one foot.
- Driving a horseshoe nail into your house’s front door lintel.
- Spitting out bread by an anthill, and as the ants carry it away the pain will leave.
- Complaining to a pear tree about your toothache.
- Vowing to never comb your hair on a Friday or shave on a Sunday.
These may seem absurd, but there are still some wacky beliefs and suspect information put about toothaches even today. If you have a toothache its best to see your dentist as soon as possible, don’t put it off!
Modern Toothache Myths
There are several causes of dental pain including cavities, cracked teeth, gum disease and infections. Here are four tips that debunk some common myths that may stop you from getting the help you need:
- Do not put aspirin on your gum or tooth. Aspirin won’t relive pain when applied to the tooth or gum, in fact aspirin can cause pain when used this way. Aspirin is very acidic and can cause ‘aspirin burn’ which is a very painful and nasty ulcer on the gum or cheek.
- Clove oil is a traditional remedy for toothache and it can work. It has anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties. Like aspirin it can cause burns which are painful so it should only be used for a short time until you see your dentist.
- If pain or toothache is off-and-on this means something is wrong and your body is warning you. So now is the time to get it checked out before it becomes a serious problem, don’t ignore it!
- A toothache DOES NOT mean you will lose the tooth. Treatments such as root canal mean we can save even badly infected teeth.
Don’t Wait If You Have Pain
Pain Relief
Nobody has to live with toothache. We can provide the latest treatments to not only relieve your pain, but to create healthy and resilient smiles, so you can get back to living your life. Don’t let one more day of dental discomfort go by without contacting us.
Image by Flickr user Edward Webb used under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Image cropped and modified from original.
