I need a good home remedy for toothache

[Hannah]

I woke up during the night with worse toothache than yesterday. Its a molar thats been giving me problems for a while and for which I've been to the dentist twice before. He suspects that it is cracked.

There are no emergency dentists in our area, so I can only phone for advice tomorrow morning.

 

The emergency pharmacy will be open for two hours today and I will get some painkillers from them when they open later.

 

What home remedies can I use in the meantime for severe toothache?

[carina]

Ground cloves. You can make a paste and put it on the tooth. :)

[Hannah]

Thanks!

[LaxMom]

If you have a local health food store, they should sell clove oil in their essential oils section. They may even have Gum-o-mile from Herbs for Kids. It has other soothing stuff, along with the clove oil. (I recommend these only because ground cloves tend to travel around in your mouth, which can be sort of gross)

[Soror]

I was going to suggest clove oil as well.

[Pamela H in Texas]

I'm trying to make do til Sept 29. I'm using a packet with Tylenol, aspirin, and oragel as well as cotton balls with vanilla. I have also found a position it hurts less in.

 

Btw, my dentist disagrees with using vanilla. It SHE isn't the one in pain.

[LMA]

I had a cracked tooth extracted last month after a failed root canal. There is nothing to help the pain. The dentist even gave me percocet before the root canal. The pain will only worsen until you at least get a root canal. My root canal was good for two weeks and then pain came back, not too much but it was uncomfortable. I put off the extraction for two months.

 

When the tooth was finally removed, the tooth was infected. The oral surgeon told me that cracks let things into the tooth which leads to infection and he said the infection could have gone to my bloodstream to my heart. So I won't postpone extractions next time.

[Missouri Okie]

I've had luck with peppermint extract on an aching tooth. I think my pain was sinus related.

[Princess Peach]

If I may ask, why are you waiting until the 29th? I had excruciating pain with a broken molar. Percosets made me ill so I just had to deal with the pain until I could get it pulled. But waiting 2 weeks is crazy!

[jessicalb]

I was in total agony from a broken tooth for over a month. Finally got the tooth pulled yesterday. Here are all the things that helped me:

 

Ice - Hold an ice pack to the outside of your cheek where you think the broken tooth is, not where the pain is. Even if the pain is radiating out, hold the ice at the source. Take breaks, don't just keep it on. It helps if you catch it earlier than later, before the pain is too intense.

 

Tea bags and tea - Cool or cold, never warm or hot. Hold the steeped and cooled tea back between your teeth over the sore spot. I walked around for about a week with a tea bag (make a fresh one every couple of hours) in my mouth almost all the time once I found this trick. Also, just taking a drink of room temp tea and holding it in my mouth helped a lot. I read that it has to be black or gree tea, not herbal tea.

 

Keep your head elevated - Sleep on a slope or sitting up, don't bend over, etc.

 

Mix tylenol and advil - Together they helped a lot more than either one alone. Pay attention to dosing information. If your head is cloudy with pain, lay out enough doses for one day in the morning and take out of that so you can't go over.

 

Play video games - Seriously. If I caught it before the tooth was stabbing me into a brainless fog of pain, video games helped a lot. It had to be twitch games, like Mario or Tetris, not thinking games. There is something about engaging your brain in a game like that that actually simulates narcotics. Pretty much any media consumption helped, though, so I would do things like play a game on my phone while reading forums on my computer and the tv going on some horrifying thing like Toddlers and Tiaras. Distraction for the win!

 

Clove oil mostly made the rest of my mouth burn. It was not helpful. :(

 

Stay hydrated!

 

I hope you feel better soon. This was easily the most painful thing I have ever gone through, and it just went on and on and freaking on. :(

[Flowing Brook]

My mom had a toothache Wednesday. She made a poultice of slippery elm and goldenseal. She left it in her mouth all night. The next day she was pain free. She has been that way since. She only did this treatment once. She is pretty sure the tooth is abscessed since it has a hole in it.

Edited September 16, 2012 by puddles

[wintermom]

I had a cracked tooth extracted last month after a failed root canal. There is nothing to help the pain. The dentist even gave me percocet before the root canal. The pain will only worsen until you at least get a root canal. My root canal was good for two weeks and then pain came back, not too much but it was uncomfortable. I put off the extraction for two months.

 

When the tooth was finally removed, the tooth was infected. The oral surgeon told me that cracks let things into the tooth which leads to infection and he said the infection could have gone to my bloodstream to my heart. So I won't postpone extractions next time.

 

Sounds like good advice and a reason NOT to use home-remedies for prolonged periods. Besides that fact that self-diagnosis is never a good thing.

[hsingscrapper]

Are you at least having an antibiotic being called in for you? If so, your dentist may be waiting for that to do it's work. Some dentists won't do anything until an infection is cleared up to prevent the possibility of it hitting your bloodstream.

[Shellers]

One of my fillings fell out and hurt like crazy. My DH bought me an over the counter tooth pain brush. I would twist the wand and jab the brush/gel in the hole to get some temporary pain relief. I took Aleve. Beer helps too. :D

 

I ended up getting a root canal.