What to do if a tooth hurts

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

You won't have to run to the pharmacy. Most likely, you have everything you need at home.

Of course, the most correct and logical way is to visit the dentist as soon as possible in order to determine the exact cause and start adequate treatment. But you still have to live to see the dentist, and the tooth (however, maybe not a tooth, but somewhere nearby) hurts right now. Therefore, we will deal with emergency measures that can at least reduce pain to a tolerable level.

Yes, a little preliminary preparation is required. If possible, brush your teeth and / or rinse your mouth with clean warm water - this will increase the effectiveness of pain relief measures.

What can be done immediately

1. Rinse your mouth with salt water …

Dissolve ¹⁄₂ teaspoon of salt in a glass of warm water and rinse your mouth thoroughly until the solution runs out. It looks like one of the most popular, even grandmother's express methods of getting rid of toothache. And this is the very case when the grandmothers were right.

Salt water is a natural disinfectant, and research shows it does help reduce inflammation in the mouth.

If the cause of the pain is precisely inflammation (for example, pulpitis or a gum infection), rinsing with salt is a good way not only to calm the pain, but also to slow down or even stop the development of an unhealthy process.

In addition, intensive mouth rinsing will help get rid of food particles and other small foreign objects stuck between the teeth or the surface of the tooth and the gum, which sometimes become pain provocateurs.

2. … or hydrogen peroxide

The advice, at first glance, is strange, but effective. Like saline, hydrogen peroxide has disinfectant properties that can reduce inflammation and pain associated with it. Bonus: hydrogen peroxide softens plaque, making it easier to remove later.

To prepare a rinse solution, mix hydrogen peroxide (3%) and water in a 1: 1 ratio. Do not swallow it while using.

3. Apply a cold compress to your cheek

The higher the temperature, the more it hurts. The blood moves more actively, the vessels expand, the internal pressure on the inflamed area increases. If you apply a cold compress to it, the vessels will narrow and the pain will become less noticeable. In addition, cold can reduce swelling and inflammation.

This solution applies to almost all types of pain. If a tooth hurts, you can do, for example, like this: apply to the cheek for 10–20 minutes:

• a towel soaked in cold water;
• an ice pack wrapped in a thin cloth (if available).

If your teeth do not react to the cold, you can simply suck up a piece of ice like a lollipop.

Yes, unlike cold compresses, warm warming compresses are not a good option. Firstly, they will only dilate the blood vessels, increasing the pain. And secondly, they can contribute to the development of inflammation, if it is it that is the cause of pain.

Heat can alleviate suffering only in one case: if the pain is caused by trigeminal neuralgia (it gives off to the teeth, and therefore it is often confused with a toothache). However, until you are sure that we are talking about neuralgia, you should not play with heat.

4. Chew the garlic

This particular flavoring has been used in medicine for centuries. And, in general, it is quite reasonable. Modern research confirms Garlic: a review of the potential therapeutic effects of the medicinal properties of garlic. It not only kills harmful bacteria that cause inflammation, but also relieves pain.

If you feel good, you can just chew a clove or two. Another option is to grind the garlic into gruel and apply it to the tooth and gum next to it.

5. Make a clove oil compress

The method is exotic, but what if you accidentally have a bottle of this essential oil lying around? If so, congratulations: you are the owner of a very effective (at least for mice, whose reactions are similar to those of humans) for toothache. Clove oil contains the natural antiseptic eugenol. This substance not only kills germs, but also reduces pain in much the same way as the rather powerful anesthetic benzocaine.

Apply a few drops of clove oil (you can dilute it with a couple of drops of olive or sunflower oil) on a cotton swab and cover the affected tooth and the adjacent gum with it. Let the compress sit in your mouth for at least 10-15 minutes.

Another use is to add a few drops of clove oil to warm water, shake well and use as a mouthwash.

6. Don't lie down

Or, if you still want to lie down, use a pillow under your back to keep your upper body, including your head, in an elevated position. Lowering your head to the level of the heart or lower, you run the risk of increasing pain: this will happen due to increased blood supply and vasodilation.

7. Take a pharmacy pain reliever

This is perhaps the most obvious and convenient option if the pain overtook you at work or while traveling. Ibuprofen-based products have proven themselves well.

But with the grandmother's method - crushing analgin into gruel and applying it to an aching tooth - it is better not to indulge in it. The active ingredient of analgin - metamizole sodium - can indeed have a local analgesic and anti-inflammatory effect. However, it should be borne in mind that metamizole has an acidic structure. This means that if the pain is caused by damage to the enamel or mild caries, it will likely aggravate the situation.

What needs to be done as quickly as possible

Keep in mind: you still need to go to the doctor. The described methods relieve pain, but do not eliminate its cause: diseases of the teeth, gums or neuralgia. Therefore, even if you managed to get rid of the pain, be sure to see your dentist. The doctor will diagnose and prescribe treatment that will help you.

And even more so go to the dentist if the tooth hurts for a day or longer, as well as if swelling appears and the temperature rises. The infection that caused the toothache may have entered the bloodstream. And this is fraught with serious consequences.