Forest Smiles – The Best Dentist in Lynchburg, VA
It is the middle of the night or a national holiday and there are few chemists or dentists open and even those that are happen to be located miles away. And then it happens…dreaded toothache strikes and causing pain that you can only relate to if you have experienced it yourself.
If you are lucky enough to have some codeine or co-codamol (paracetamol and codeine) then these will be your best over the counter pain relief. If not then ibuprofen is the second best pain relief followed by paracetamol as a ‘better than nothing’ option.
However, if you are one of the increasing number of people who prefer not to take over the counter medicines or you don’t have any available when the toothache strikes here are a few suggestions of alternatives you might want to try out.
Garlic is one of those things that you either love or hate but it is great at providing pain relief for toothache and let’s face it if you have raging toothache you are going to be more concerned about pain relief than taste! You can either chew a clove of garlic directly or mix it together with a little salt if you prefer and rub it on your gums.
Try this and you will be surprised how effective it is but you may need to repeat the process over a few days for the antibiotics benefits of the garlic to take effect. If you do not have garlic in the house then try its close relative the onion as an alternative. You can either chew the raw onion or if this is painful place the raw onion or garlic onto the affected area of your mouth.
Salt water is a completely natural although not particularly tasty toothache cure that can be used safely in conjunction with some of the other suggestions given here. Simply dissolving salt into some warm water and using this as a mouth wash can help fight any infections and sterilise the affected area thoroughly. It is not advisable to put salt directly onto the affected area as it may rub against your gums and be very uncomfortable. You can use sea salt or table salt depending on your preference and / or what you have available to hand.
These simple toothache cures may not be the most appealing solutions particularly taste wise but they are considered to be effective. Most will target the underlying causes of toothache such as inflammation or infection. Of course, if these suggestions (including the over the counter solutions) do not help then you must make an appointment with your dentist to check for any problems that may require a further treatment or investigation.