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My Home Remedy for the Natural Pain Relief of Toothache
Curing Tooth Decay Through Dietary Dental Regeneration
by Ulla, webmaster and designer of www.healingcancernaturally.com
© 2007 ParadiseNow.net * All Rights Reserved * Copyright Notice
A simple & virtually free “alternative” treatment program designed to
relieve & stop toothache and restore teeth to functionality for those
wishing or needing to do without a dentist & to avoid dental
procedures including the possible or proven health
hazards involved in the practices of
conventional dentistry
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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742 - 1799), first German professor of experimental physics and known as an author and art critic for his scientific treatises and witty aphorisms, wrote the following in his “wastebook”: "To invent an infallible remedy for toothache by which it would be instantly arrested, might well be worth as much and more than the discovery of yet another planet.”
Since my best friend and I discovered for ourselves what seems like a truly infallible home toothache remedy (which we have successfully tested time and again), I can only shake my head in amazement (and horror) at the way we are being held “prisoner” and at the mercy of the “dental industry”... Like many or most in the westernized world, I grew up being told by dentists, family and the media that once you have a toothache denoting the presence of a “cavity”, there is nothing you can do to truly help or cure it since teeth, once attacked and softened by caries, will never repair themselves. All you can supposedly do is take whatever pain medicine, home remedy or herb you can think of to temporarily ease, alleviate or hopefully stop the pain while rushing to see the emergency dentist or oral surgeon at the earliest possible time since s/he holds the only effective tools to “properly” repair the tooth cavity and get the tooth fixed via drilling, filling (and billing). And of course, once you have caries bacteria starting to gnaw away at your tooth, there is no means known on this earth to stop them from relentlessly progressing, which could be found outside the dentist’s office and chair.
I know differently now - at least with respect to my own teeth, and I understand those of some others following similar principles.
I also believe had I been taught from the start what I now know to be true about the natural self-healing power of the human body - including my teeth and gums - I would have all my teeth in beautiful working order, instead of four teeth extracted and others seriously damaged by being filed down to allow the fitting of three bridges (two of which I have had since removed). Also I could have saved myself a tremendous amount of physical pain, not to mention some money.
The simple procedure for toothache relief (please don't dismiss it as being too simple - I originally did so too) and subsequent rebuilding of healthy tooth enamel described in the following has indeed worked miracles for me, even with tooth pain of the worst imaginable kind and very deep cavities. In fact I once had a toothache so terrible and extreme that it sent me in some state of shock for a moment, it was like lightning searing through my jaw and beyond, and one of my cavities had virtually reached to the root, as my then dentist told me as she was drilling at it. Nevertheless I told her to stop drilling (she was planning a root canal). I subsequently treated the caries-eaten tooth myself using the approach sketched below which I will describe in greater detail at a later date while providing here all the essential elements. While it didn't recuperate, it has never again given me any trouble.
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My personal best toothache cure: how to get rid of a toothache,
even involving severe, intense or excruciating pain
Dissolve enough salt1 in warm water (body temperature) to make a strong solution and
rinse your mouth repeatedly, vigourously swishing the salty water around your mouth (if the pain allows) or just allowing the brine to work in your mouth (it will make you salivate).
The dental pain, especially when extremely severe, may instantly subside or perhaps take a while before it goes away, but it will (it certainly has done so for me every time I have
used it, the longest it took for acute pain to stop was about two minutes. I have also seen a few others reporting near-instantaneous dental pain relief achieved in identical fashion).
Repeat application of the salt rinse - even over several days in case the pain reoccurs or doesn’t fully go away - may be required. One may also lodge some salt crystals directly against the tooth or gum area that hurts.
I found this brine toothache treatment more effective than tea tree oil (which for me is extremely useful for lesser pain and which I may subsequently apply to keep my mouth
and teeth "sterilized"), as well as more helpful than anything else I have tried such as allopathical painkillers and the widely recommended old standard kitchen toothache
remedy clove extract (or pure food grade oil of cloves, an over-the-counter remedy which proved useless in my case). (Traditional over-the-counter medications & pain relievers
such as aspirin, acetaminophen [Tylenol], Ibuprofen [Motrin, Advil, Nuprin] and hydrocodone [Vicodin] in fact should eventually worsen the pain and/or further deteriorate
the tooth’s health due to their adding even more toxins to the mouth and teeth, at least when these medications are repeatedly applied.)
The salt water treatment also seems to work well on painful tooth or rather gum abscesses (infected pus-filled teeth/gums) by gradually draining off the pus. (Incidentally and obviously, if food particles trapped between one’s teeth are the root cause of one’s toothache, thoroughly sloshing the salt water around one’s mouth in the above-described manner should help dislodge the stuck particles. Otherwise flossing or tooth picks may help.)
For those who would like to see more toothache helpers & pain remedies suggested/tried by me or other sources, I have compiled an additional extensive
list of simple and natural/herbal home toothache remedies.
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How the salt solution may work to stop & cure toothache:
on causes of dental and gingival pain
I believe the warm salt water to work in the following manner: having a toothache to my knowledge means the nerve is being attacked by caries and/or other bacteria travelling into the nerve's environs via a "softened" tooth (which has lost its healthy natural hardness due to a lack of minerals in its crystalline latticework allowing bacteria to travel through the “gaps” towards deeper-lying tooth areas. In fact, tooth enamel when healthy is the hardest tissue in the human body!). In other words, the pain is caused by bacterial infection settling and spreading in a weakened area. The salt water rinse (probably the stronger the brine the better) works in two ways: first via osmosis, pulling out molecules and offending bacteria from the gums surrounding the nerve (and possibly the weakened tooth itself), second by the salt both directly killing these problem-causing bacteria on contact, and them being flushed out by repeated rinsing.
To add other interesting perspectives on possible causes of tooth as well as gum pain proposing an additional explanation why salt water can be so effective in immediately relieving dental pain, here are some of the definitions offered by dentist “Paul Revere” (a pseudonym) in his 1970 “alternative dentistry” book “Dentistry and Its Victims” excerpted from the chapter discussing “Dental Pain and Its Control”:
“Though the pulp is the most common source of dental pain, it is not a nerve. (But when people say "the nerve", they mean the pulp.) A condition of slight irritation of the pulp is called pulpal hyperemia. A hyperemic pulp usually displays sensitivity to cold, and it may be sensitive to the pressure of biting or the action of food juices, especially sugary or acid juices. Hyperemia may be episodic; the symptoms often disappear entirely for long periods of time, returning for briefer episodes. I have had patients whose hyperemia returned twice a year, at the change of seasons, year after year. Most of us have known days when it was impossible to take something cold into our mouth... without experiencing dental pain.
Pulpal inflammation, or pulpitis, produces more acute pain than that which results from pulpal hyperemia. The inflammation may originate in any of several causes: trauma, as from a blow or dental drilling; irritation, because of decay and, possibly, a resulting invasion by bacteria; toxic effects of poorly insulated filling materials; or changes in temperature. Any tissue, including the pulp, tends to swell when it becomes inflamed. But unlike other tissues, which are usually free to expand, the pulp is confined in inflexible walls of dentin. As the inflamed pulp swells, it builds up terrific pressures inside the tooth. It is these pressures which are the direct cause of the most severe dental pain. [And it is here, of course, where the osmotic effect of salt water comes into play, exerting an immediate dehydrating pull on the area concerned, thereby decreasing its internal pressure. It seems clear to me, however, that more than a simple “milking” effect is involved since repeated salt water rinses [if followed up with a tooth-regenerating diet] can initiate a long-term cure for the “decayed” tooth, likely as mentioned due to the thorough killing off of offending bacteria.]
The gums may be a source of great pain, particularly if there is infection present. Pain in the gums results from infectious lesions, developing wisdom teeth, and irritations such as dentures sores. There are many other causes of mouth pain; the important thing to know is that it is invariably a warning of a real ailment that should be corrected. I have neer seen a cause of what I could honestly call psychosomatic dental pain. Although on occasion dental pain can be very difficult precisely to locate and correct, such pain is very real and rarely, if ever, psychosomatic in origin.”
Other causes of dental and gingival pain
Apart from the above-mentioned causes of dental pain such as “tooth decay” & dental cavities there may also be (as hinted at by Paul Revere above) other common causes of toothache such as an abscess, jaw problems, a cracked tooth, impacted or erupting teeth, “gum disease”, “tooth root irritation”, “temporo-mandibular (jaw joint) disease”, and “bite” [malocclusion] problems but I am less concerned here with diagnostic accuracy than with effective help and long-term true pain relief which is based upon addressing and remedying the root causes of both toothache and tooth decay, which in turn can particularly be found in the dietary realm. In fact the above-quoted dentist “Paul Revere” writes in “Dentistry and Its Victims” that if one asks ten dentists for a diagnosis of the same tooth, one will get ten different diagnoses - an observation the accuracy of which was frankly confirmed by one of my former dentists.
One possibly important consideration worth adding here is the following:
Apparently, a tooth or jaw ache can occasionally be triggered by a problem originating
elsewhere in the body, such as in the heart (for instance heart attack or angina) or in the sinuses or ears (e.g. ear infections). I have read that angina patients occasionally only
display tooth or jaw pain as sole symptoms of their heart problem. So it seems that not every toothache is what it appears to be but might actually be an indicator of more serious
afflictions. (Ok,that was not meant to scare anyone or to pander to hypochondriacs with too much time on their hands ;-) but a just-in-case addition in order not to risk misleading anyone. Also see
Disclaimer.
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Regenerating/treating teeth via diet:
fixing cavities without a dentist or getting rid of caries without fillings
The above-described procedure to stop tooth pain is only the first step I take since my aim isn’t just lessening or temporarily numbing the pain before getting dental emergency treatment or “proper” dental work done. The next and most important step in fact is effecting a long-term toothache cure by working to help my teeth remineralize, i.e. to form a new hardened enamel, and thus restore them to functionality (I generally avoid dentists - see further down for one exception - since I don’t wish to carry fillings, crowns, inlays or partials full of foreign materials, hazardous metals and/or toxic chemicals in my mouth with their possible or proven health hazards such as amalgam mercury and other harmful metals leaching into the body, radioactive contamination etc.2 I’ve also read that the simple act of drilling into a tooth constitutes trauma to the tooth thus affected, comparable to an operation performed on another part of the physical body).
I feel that the above-mentioned remineralization or “glazing over” of teeth is most reliably achieved by a dietary change or adaptation (setting aside for the moment any psychological, emotional, mental or spiritual healing approaches for which there is certainly a place and time as well, even in the field of dental regeneration): according to the observations and in-depth studies effected by eminent dental health researcher and dentist Dr. Weston A. Price DDS as well as other dentists such as Dr. George W. Heard, for teeth to be healthy and/or maintain or regain a measure of functionality, they need to receive nutrition rich in minerals, trace elements, vitamins and various phytonutrients combined with the avoidance of all refined foodstuffs, especially sugar and white flour. The health-giving elements are particularly found in raw edibles, i.e. fresh and unprocessed food. For this reason I mostly eat (and would advise to eat) a nutritious mineral-rich raw-focussed vegetarian diet based on organically grown food, and often include seaweed (apparently the richest bioavailable source of all known minerals and trace elements, at least in its raw state), while cutting out all refined edibles such as sugar & white flour, and also being careful with acidic foods (oranges, grapefruit, vinegar, tomatoes etc.) and highly concentrated natural sugars or sweeteners like honey, dried fruit and so on.3
Additionally dentist Dr. Heard observes in his book “Man Versus Toothache” [which you can download from the extensive online library soilandhealth.org] that RAW milk from cows that have grazed on grass rich in minerals and trace elements, constitutes an excellent source of all elements needed for maintaining and restoring dental integrity, while pasteurized milk has lost all tooth-building and -protective (as well as possibly all other health-giving) values. So if you do use dairy, the effort to find raw organic milk may be very worthwhile, particularly in summer where organic cows are all likely to graze outside. Dr. Heard’s “Man Versus Toothache” does make it pretty clear that there seem to be worlds of difference in health value between raw and pasteurised organic milk, as well as milk from cows grazing on mineral-rich pastures and those grazing on less fertile grounds (or fed on lesser quality food). In fact, eminent Natural Hygiene proponent Dr. Herbert M. Shelton devotes much detailed space in his book Orthotrophy (also available from soilandhealth.org) to the great difference in health-protective values existing between raw and pasteurized milk. (More information on the various benefits of raw milk at realmilk.com/enzyme.html, on the raw milk versus pasteurized milk debate & comparison at realmilk.com/rawvpasteur.html and abstracts on the effect of pasteurization on the nutritional value of milk at realmilk.com/abstractsmilk.html. And an additional great tip for readers worldwide: realmilk.com/where-other.html features raw milk sources in Canada, Chile, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Denmark, Eastern Europe, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, and realmilk.com/where5.html offers a comprehensive listing of raw milk farms in every state in the US.)4
Should the teeth initially be too sensitive to chew or allow contact with food, juicing as well as blending food to a soft mush in a blender and drinking/ingesting it through a straw may help (while avoiding drinking or eating any substances that might irritate the tooth such as hot or cold food items). It is important, however, that teeth do get into contact with well-chewed natural food to allow them to directly extract minerals and whatever else they require to enable their natural regeneration (proper chewing is thus not only an important factor in good digestion, i.e. one of the central pillars of a healthy body, but also in the health and regeneration of your teeth. In fact the increased blood and lymphatic circulation in gum, teeth, and other oral tissues brought about by thoroughly chewing one’s food should in itself both enhance dental cellular detoxification and nourishment).
Combined with brushing & cleaning as needed (see below) and getting sunlight for Vitamin D production (required for proper assimilation of calcium into the dental structure), this kind of regimen rich in minerals and trace elements should allow the teeth to properly or at the very least sufficiently remineralize, i.e. newly form a hardened enamel to allow the tooth to be normally used (for greater detail see for instance oramedia.com, the “site for dental self-sufficiency”, and rawpaleodiet.org/dental-regeneration-1.html where you can read the author’s ample “observations and opinions on dental regeneration with natural healing methods”; some really good tips concerning a tooth-building, regenerating and preserving diet rich in bioavailable calcium and other minerals & trace elements required for healthy teeth can be found at fredericpatenaude.com/dentalhealth.html).
An important additional dental healing avenue in my eyes is the use of homeopathic remedies to both generally strengthen and otherwise heal teeth and gums. I consider homeopathy a very valuable energetic healing modality and once successfully used it to bring a deep-seated root infection literally to a head, with a large boil forming on the gum that allowed much pus to be gradually discharged, thus relieving the infection and concomitant pain.
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Sun(light) and vitamin D
If too little sun is available and/or you feel your teeth weakening, I would take vitamin D tablets (generally shunning codliver oil/fish oil or cod liver due to its non-vegetarian nature). I also try to expose my teeth and gums directly to the light of the sun, a powerful “disinfectant” and health-promoting factor in itself, see Sun light exposure . (Also compare Light, Medicine of the Future.)
Dental & oral hygiene: cleaning teeth and mouth,
furthering oral health through natural teeth care
Apparently it is very important to avoid all toothpastes containing glycerin since for teeth to remineralize, the tooth surface needs to be clean and “accessible”. This is prevented, however, by glycerin which covers the surface with a sticky and hard-to-remove substance. Personally I often use an electric toothbrush plus simple water and sea salt, baking soda or pure plant soap without glycerin or perfume (more on tooth soap here). I also tend to not brush my teeth at all when I don’t feel a need for it such as after eating only natural and/or mostly raw low-sugar food. In this case, I simply rinse them well with water or a strong salt solution. I also regularly clean my tongue. Incidentally, I remember dental health researcher Weston A. Price (who travelled the world in search of the secret of healthy teeth) reporting that in his investigations of peoples who naturally preserve their healthy teeth via unprocessed foods consumption he found that none of them even cleaned their teeth at all. In “Man Versus Toothache”, Dr. George Heard relates similar stories such as the case of a woman of 80+ years with a full set of healthy teeth who had never used a toothbrush.
That said, I recently realized that once teeth have been more seriously damaged by faulty diet and toxic and invasive dentistry, cleaning is likely to be a highly important and possibly the most important factor when trying to avoid further damage to one’s teeth. In fact Dr. Nara devotes the vast majority of his book How to Become Dentally Self-Sufficient to the subject of religiously applied proper daily cleaning and dental hygiene as the only way to forestall continued deterioration of (predamaged) or otherwise endangered teeth.
Dr. Hulda Clark advises in The Cure For All Diseases: “Don't use toothpaste5, not even health-food varieties. To clean teeth, use plain water or chemically pure baking soda6 —but dissolve it in water first, otherwise it is too abrasive. Or brush with hydrogen peroxide food grade, not the regular variety. Don't use floss; use 2 or 4-pound monofilament fish line [I use simple thread.]. Floss has mercury2 antiseptics (with thallium pollution!). Throw away your old toothbrush—solvents don't wash away. Don't use mouthwash. Use saltwater (aluminum-free salt) or food grade hydrogen peroxide (a few drops in water).” Don’t use hydrogen peroxide, however, if you have metal in your mouth because it will leach out some of the metal.” Information on Dr. Hulda Regehr Clark's body detoxification protocols.
Dr. Gerald F. Judd, PhD (Good Teeth, Birth to Death) recommends that “A good solution for clean teeth, which I have used for 5 years, is bar soap. Wet the brush, swipe the bar two or three times with it, then brush the teeth thoroughly and the gums gently. Rinse with water three or four times. All oils are washed off the teeth and the gums are disinfected. The bacteria are killed by the soap. The teeth are then ready for remineralization with calcium and phosphate in the diet. The enzyme adenosine diphosphatase delivers phosphate to the enamel surface. Do not use liquid soaps. Their different composition is harmful to the protoplasm.” Here a specialised tooth soap ® product (which incidentally was recently honored by Mike Adams, the well-known editor of NaturalNews.com, with his "Editor's Choice Award" in the Best Dental Product category! Naturalnews.com is the most trusted health website in the world according to a recent public poll, so this is a true accolade).
You may also wish to include oil pulling in your dental routine, a simple DIY practice reputedly drawing toxins from your oral mucosa & destroying mouth germs while stimulating bodily eliminations and increasing metabolism, thus leading to various healing benefits and enhanced health (apparently even causing tooth whitening).
Bad breath
Thoroughly rinsing my mouth and gargling with a strong salt solution also works wonders for any bad breath symptoms (apparently killing off odour-producing bacteria). Likely due
to the same bactericidal mechanism of action, I have also seen it recommended to relieve a sore throat.
Baking soda rinses of course should have a similar effect (but salt is much more inexpensive to use).
When I do see a dentist
For about seven years now I have successfully self-treated any occurring tooth problems (they are few and far between today and only follow on the heels of dietary mistakes in the form of refined sugar and white flour) using the above-described approach. I did allow one exception in my “dentist-free zone” policy: I had a tooth with a very deep cavity where the filling had fallen out. Normally, I leave such teeth alone, allowing them to form a new hardened enamel layer via proper diet and cleaning. In that particular case, the cavity was so deep and “convoluted” that it was impossible to keep clean, with food rests which kept getting trapped in the inside passage and starting to rot and cause pain. So I had this one cavity sealed by a plastic filling.
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Other simple and natural/herbal toothache medicines or home remedies?
One can hardly think of a more inexpensive way to soothe a raging tooth than salty water (which as mentioned also seems to work well on tooth abscesses). As mentioned, painkillers, the widely recommended oil of clove and tea tree oil (placed directly onto the area affected by tooth decay) proved useless for me with serious toothaches (though I have never tried applying a fresh piece of clove which might possibly be more effective). Additionally, salt and water are next to always immediately available (and as mentioned, even sea salt by itself directly placed on the bad tooth or general area of great discomfort works for me as well) while some of the herbal and other remedies listed in the following which I’ve seen variously recommended for aching/paining teeth may not be at hand or more difficult to procure.
Tea tree oil: Tea tree essential oil is a potent antibacterial that is my second best choice as a tooth and gum pain remedy. It has worked extremely well for me with minor tooth and gum aches (applied straight). It has the additional advantage of being easily carried along in one’s pocket so it is always available in case of need. Apparently rinsing the mouth with water plus tea tree oil can provide quick relief to inflamed gums. Caveat: use organic tea tree oil whenever possible. According to my information, tea tree oil made from conventionally grown (non-organic) crops retains high levels of toxic pesticide residues.
Laying on of hands: ask a friend to put his or her hand on the painful spot with a healing intention. This once worked wonders for me, possibly triggering the tooth (the one the dentist wanted to “root canal”) to go into reparation mode (though the tooth concerned has meanwhile further degenerated without pain). Putting my own hand on the cheek with the aching tooth also worked very effectively for me with less intense pain, relieving it near-instantly (but only for a certain time, such as allowing me to sleep for several hours).
Exercise & increasing blood and lymph flow: a friend told me that when he had a terrible toothache, moving (going out and riding his bike) made the pain less severe. Similarly hanging my head down as far as possible (increasing blood flow to the head and mouth) helped relieve me from the pain of a very bad toothache, temporarily stopping it (it resumed after I straightened myself). Another friend reported that chewing gum improved his toothache.
Sun exposure: exposing my teeth and gums directly to the light of the sun (as mentioned above) helped me calm aching teeth or gums as well. The reason is (among other things) that UV light at wavelengths of 260-280 nm has bactericidal capabilities, i.e. kills bacteria (UV radiation is actually used as a sterilizing technique).
Strengthening your teeth: When my teeth (or one of them) hurt(s), it can also be a sign that the tooth simply needs strengthening (remineralizing) or cleaning (for instance of food particles trapped between adjacent teeth). See Regenerating/healing teeth via diet and Oral hygiene: cleaning teeth and mouth.
Listerine: Warm salt water followed by rinsing with Listerine Antiseptic Mouthwash is also reported extremely effective, taking the pain away in minutes. (Personally I would shun Listerine due to all the chemicals added to the formula.)
Ginger root available at grocery stores reportedly works very effectively and can provide instant toothache relief. Cut off a piece of the ginger root, remove the skin and apply the ginger piece directly to the painful tooth. Bite down on it if at all possible and chew it slowly to swill its juice around the aching tooth. Keep the rest of the ginger root in a container in your refrigerator. Use as needed in case you may have to renew the ginger treatment.
Echinacea: The best toothache remedy reportedly would be fresh echinacea root (Echinacea tincture would be experimental).
Plantain leaves: crush/chew the fresh leaves and place on the aching tooth, mix with some salt as available.
While colloidal silver to my knowledge is supposed to work with similar effectiveness as salt water, it is incomparably more expensive and may have other drawbacks.
Clove extract, pure food grade oil of cloves, fresh piece of clove: Clove oil is supposed to have a bactericidal and analgesic effect for both toothache and gum infections. As mentioned, I tried non-organic clove oil for a very serious toothache without getting any relief, but I think that applying a fresh piece of clove might possibly work better. Equally, using (if available) organic oil of cloves may make a big difference.
Also, just for the record, Viktoras Kulvinskas recommends in his “Survival Into The 21st Century” classic to use wheatgrass juice for toothaches and healing, which is certainly worth trying if you have it available (wheatgrass can be easily home grown).
Then there is of course homeopathy: if you do a search for “toothache homeopathy”, “homeopathic toothache treatment” etc., you should find many suggestions such as Mercurius. [Merc] Chamomilla. [Cham], Belladonna [Bell], Coffea [Coff], Plantago major [Plan], Silicea [Sil], Calcarea fluorica [Calc-f], Calcarea phosphorica [Calc-p], Staphisagria [Staph], Kreosote [Kreos], Spigelia [Spig], Arnica [Arn] as well as personal reports on how people have reduced tooth pain and treated and found relief from various pains related to gums or teeth.
Food grade hydrogen peroxide: a few drops in water as a mouth wash (not, as mentioned, if you have metal in your mouth) might help relieve toothache as well since hydrogen peroxide oxidises other substances.
Dental ozone treatment: on a related subject, I have read of a person successfully healing cavities with ozone. In fact, ozone therapy is used in some German dental practices as a powerful antiseptic, disinfectant and painless germicidal treatment against caries and dental/gingival infections. This treatment without side effects kills off bacteria, viruses and fungi within seconds and generally makes antibiotics unnecessary. For general information on mode of operation and effects of ozone, see for instance On Home Uses and Medical Applications of Ozone (air and water purification of pathogenic germs & pollutants, treatment of viruses, cancer, Aids, Lyme, gangrene & many other illnesses and complaints).
EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique): Basically I would have liked to list this option and DIY energy healing tool in first place. But since there aren’t yet enough powerful testimonials testifying to its potentially amazing healing effect and since I haven’t tried it yet much myself on dental issues I haven’t done so. Also unless you are already familiar with this technique (or have someone nearby who is) you will need a while to familiarize yourself with it (at least an hour to read the free basic EFT manual). To see a few examples of its potential effect on toothache, read EFT relief of "emotionally caused toothache", EFT relieves tooth pain and resets rotten tooth, Bad toothache: EFT helps avoid a root canal, “toothache has gone”. Very detailed free EFT Get Started package that will assist you in understanding how EFT works as well as in immediately applying it on yourself and others.
Generally: I think it may sometimes be a good idea to alternate remedies. For example once I used sea salt water repeatedly with a more stubborn tooth/gum ache (relating to an infection that had developed under a bridge which had come loose, see below), and felt that the salt had at some point itself become an element of irritation to the nerve (noticeable from a strong initial increase in pain when taking the salt water in my mouth). When I switched to using organic tea tree oil in-between (applied topically), all was well, as far as toothaches from bridges go :-).
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Numbing the pain
I don’t think any of the following recipes purely aimed at numbing or dulling the tooth pain are as effective, natural and easy to apply as salt water, nor do they address what often constitutes the root cause: offending bacteria. To be as complete as possible, here is a list of suggestions to get temporary toothache relief by numbing the pain.
Finger massage.
Before knowing about salt water, I often used my fingers to rub and massage the achy spot, often combined with applying tea tree oil topically on the sore tooth or gum.
Cold & ice
Cold helps reduce the swelling that may cause the pain. When you have an infection, applying cold treatments should reduce swelling & discomfort in the affected area.
Toothaches not caused by infection apparently worsen with cold but can be alleviated with moist heat applications (hot water bottle etc.).
Cold water
Swishing ice cold water on the side of the mouth around the painful tooth reportedly diminishes pain instantly.
Ice inside the mouth
Try to hold a piece of ice on the side of your mouth that hurts, chew on it if possible or suck it. Repeat as needed. Cold or ice water can work the same way.
Ice massage
I’ve also seen ice massage recommended to ease toothaches (rubbing an ice cube into the painful area) to numb the nerve endings (it could also aggravate the pain).
Ice pack
Pressing an ice pack or other cold substance (look in your fridge!) on your cheek can give temporary relief.
Acupressure
has had only short term or no effect on me (it may work better for you). It is advised to press/rub on the sides of either index finger opposite the base of the fingernail (but compare Laying on of hands and particularly EFT).
Yarrow (achillea millefolium)
Yarrow root is also an anesthetic. To relieve tooth pain, apply the fresh root or leaves to the gums or teeth.
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Miscellaneous suggestions for toothache relief & strengthening of teeth & gums
Dennis Knicely, D.D., recommends in his very interesting article on Healing Teeth Naturally published at maliburaw.com/healing_teeth_1.htm among other natural remedies for teeth:
"Another Pain Formula for Toothache: Mix equal parts of: cayenne, valerian, wild lettuce.
Primrose Oil or Oil of Cloves helps relieve toothache.
Grapefruit seed extract eliminates bacteria associated with infections.
Brushing with chlorophyll powder can halt tooth decay and gum infection.
To strengthen teeth and gums and to help remove tartar, cut a strawberry in half and rub
onto teeth and gums. Leave on for 45 minutes and rinse with warm water.
Natural fluorine, from rye sprouts or flakes, increases enamel strength.
White Oak Bark will help set loose teeth.
Herbal Calcium Formula: Mix equal parts of: alfalfa, horsetail, Irish Moss, Lobelia, Oat Straw. A tea can be made or ground herbs put in capsules.”
Vanilla extract: swish around mouth or pour a few drops on the paining tooth.
Clove of garlic: crush & mix with peanut butter, apply to the tooth that hurts.
Turmeric (haldi) sticks: burn, turn into fine powder & use as tooth powder.
Oil of oregano: pour a few drops directly on tooth or gum (a reader commented that “I
have found that as an alternate pain killer Oil of Oregano works better than Tea Tree Oil for me” and “a garlic piece....works well with the oregano oil”).
Cashews/oil of cashew: can help abscesses to heal.
Teabag: place as close to the painful tooth as possible and suck on it.
Aspirin: I have seen various warnings concerning the advice to lodge an aspirin directly against the aching gum or tooth (or biting down on it) to dull the pain for a while. While this may provide temporary toothache relief, it can also cause a so-called aspirin burn (inflammation of gum and cheek tissues).
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Healing gum (periodontal) pockets (periodontitis)
Incidentally and without going into greater detail at this time, I also easily self-healed deep gum pockets at one point. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, periodontitis “begins with the deposition of bacterial plaque on the teeth below the gum line, irritating and eroding the neighbouring tissues. At this state, the condition is reversible, but left untreated the inflamed margin of the gum begins to recede, exposing the roots of the teeth; eventually the alveolar bone that anchors the teeth becomes involved, loosening the teeth to the point where they may fall out. Removal of all plaque deposits and affected soft tissues can arrest but not reverse alveolar deterioration. ... the precipitating cause of periodontitis is poor dental hygiene leading to plaque deposition...”
I had been repeatedly assured that only surgical therapy (to remove subgingival accretions and eradicate subgingival pathogens and thus effectively control the periodontal infection) was able to help me at the advanced state of periodontal disease my gums were in. But I didn’t believe it :-) How did I heal my gums? Simple: I bought myself an electric tooth brush advertised as a successful dental plaque remover and regularly brushed my teeth and gums with it. Simultaneously I stepped up and improved my diet (which I had become lax about), resuming eating only natural foods with particular emphasis on seaweed. Within a matter of days or a few weeks (I only recall that the improvement happened quickly and effortlessly), all symptoms of periodontitis or dental plaque deposition abated and have not recurred. My gums have looked and felt healthy since, over 10 years...
As usual, my ignoring the “experts’” advice and trusting my body’s ability to heal itself (if properly supported) was crowned with great success.
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In conclusion
Following the above program (including taking vitamin D tablets in wintertime when I feel a need to strengthen my teeth) has repeatedly worked wonders for me, restoring horribly aching teeth (as mentioned normally only following the consumption of sugar/white flour or concentrated natural sugars such as raisins7 ) first to a painfree state (sometimes taking several days to completely achieve) and then to painfree functionality. When I don’t consume offending substances, my teeth always feel fine in spite of remaining “cavities” (I do have several teeth which when pressed on give off a pain signal located in the root. Next to all of these are former “bridge pillars” where I waited long after pain set in to have the bridge removed. I plan on getting rid of these “smoldering root infections” over time). What seems to have happened is that all cavities have been covered and sealed by a new protective layer of hard enamel while the cavities themselves have remained “intact” (but show no further progression of tooth decay as long as I watch my diet and vitamin D status). (Incidentally, this has worked so well that I can now occasionally eat for instance organic white chocolate and sweet whole-grain biscuits [sweetened with organic raw cane sugar and similar more natural and less processed sugars or sweeteners] without getting any symptoms of tooth erosion and consequent pain. I need to be careful of overdoing this, however, since I’ve noticed that teeth can get imperceptibly weakened over a certain time and then seemingly out of the blue present major damage due to lack of structural strength, such as a small piece breaking off, particularly in wintertime, which then takes longer to rectify via optimised diet.)
Important addendum and disclaimer
Please note that the above (which I am sharing in hopes that it will benefit you as greatly as it has benefitted me) reflects my own successful personal experience with how to stop a toothache and achieve continued functionality of predamaged teeth using natural nontoxic means as well as what I have read of pertinent or better experiences of others. This means that the described approach may not work for you or work only after modification to suit your individual case. For instance I do not know if it has worked for pain stemming from root canals or so-called dead teeth. Also I know a friend (a regular cigar smoker and eater of sweets) who tried it on some intense gum/tooth pain of unknown origin but for whom it did not work over several days suggesting that the microorganisms involved had developed immunity to the “sterilizing” effect of the sea salt solution. It might also be to do with the fact that the pain mostly concerned a part of his mouth where he has a bridge. In fact, the longest it ever took me to get toothache pain relief from the salt water (over two days) was when the pain came from an area covered by a bridge. It makes sense that the salt water would take longer to work in such a spot since most of the area there was impenetrably covered by an artificial “sealant” (which I long hesitated to have removed since I resented paying another small fortune for the work of a few minutes to a dentist).
What finally helped him were plain over-the-counter painkilling tablets, with one half of a tablet applied locally and the other half taken internally, while later rinsing his mouth with water and tea tree oil and applying a few straight drops topically (he was fasting nearly throughout the experience as the tooth/gum sensitivity and pain didn’t allow him to take food). The pain-free state thus achieved helped him to properly sleep (very important for the body to do its healing and detoxifying work), with an abscess forming the following day which (in unison with the pain) gradually receded as he resumed occasionally rinsing and thus draining the abscess with sea salt water. He never needed a dentist either...
That said, I would advise to get rid of bridges under which stubborn pain has developed at your earliest convenience, so to speak. Whenever I waited to have this done, all that happened in my case was that the respective infected pillar “rotted away” under cover until it was finally released from its prison. The concomitant root infection in one case was healed, as mentioned above, by a homeopathic remedy that a spiritual naturopath correctly determined as being right for me by using a biotensor (a “high-tech” pendulum).
Before I discovered my personal saltwater toothache remedy, I also once used an analgesic very effectively - not by ingesting it (which proved rather fruitless in my case)
but by directly lodging it against the painful area, which stopped the pain within minutes.
And yes, I have also clearly seen the impact of the mind (and the laying on of hands, as
mentioned) on the experience (or absence) of toothache pain8...
Much more on natural tooth and gum care, regeneration and treatment soon at www.HealingTeethNaturally.com...
Footnotes
1 I use unrefined grey sea salt whenever available which, in contrast to processed table salt, preserves a plethora of natural minerals and trace elements. Also, when I rinse my teeth with processed salt in the above-described strong solution, it actually feels “poisonous” in my mouth while a concentrated solution of unrefined sea salt doesn’t create this unpleasant taste effect. Unrefined chunky grey sea salt is available here in health food stores where I buy it in one kg bags. This is also the only salt I use for seasoning. While there is also so-called unrefined sea salt available which is snowy white and finely ground like normal table salt, I am not sure that the latter is as rich in minerals and trace elements as the grey salt. (I think unrefined sea salt is also sold as "Celtic sea salt" in the US and other countries.) If you do use processed salt, I would make sure it is aluminium2-free, at least if you use it frequently.
2 Both mercury and aluminium seem (strongly) implicated as causes in neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's Disease. Compare On Effective Holistic Heavy Metal Detoxification (Chelation). Also see On the link between toxic dentistry (root canals, amalgam, nickel etc.) and cancer.
3 The reason why the intake of refined and processed food such as sugar and white flour as well as acidic foods such as vinegar and sour fruits should be minimized or avoided to maintain tooth enamel strength lies in the following: according to sources I find convincing, two factors, one structural, one nutritional, form the basis of tooth decay: structural weakness of teeth on the one hand (due to insufficient mineralization = lack of minerals) and attack by acids leaching out calcium on the other. Acids in their turn both stem from acidic foodstuffs but particularly are a byproduct of bacterial decomposition of food rests from refined edibles (white flour, sugar) and highly concentrated natural sugars (as found in dried fruit etc.). Hence the overriding importance of cleaning and flushing out any and all food rests, and more particularly the prevention of plaque deposits (where germs colonize).
4 I understand that due to varying state legislations it may not always be easy to buy raw organic milk. I was surprised to find that it's easy to get raw organic milk here in Berlin (in fact "Demeter" milk, i.e. of biodynamic quality which follows the highest and strictest organic standards). I only needed to ask in the (family-run) health food store around the corner and was told I simply needed to put in a special order and they would provide raw biodynamic cow's, goat's or mare's milk once a week according to my specifications. Personally I would never use conventional dairy due to the tremendous and unspeakable cruelty involved in its “production”, without even mentioning the antibiotics, pus and other toxins and noxious elements present in conventional milk, and occasionally eat a purely vegan diet.
5 Among other toxins, toothpastes can contain Triclosan, a chemical.germ killer (also found in mouthwashes, deodorants, soaps etc.). Triclosan belongs to a class of chemicals suspected of causing cancer in humans. Stored in bodily fat, it can suppress immune function and accumulate to toxic levels with resultant liver, kidney and lung damage. A well-known 'holistic' toothpaste contains the toxic chemical sodium lauryl sulfate. Also be aware that fluoride in its chemical form as used in water fluoridation is seriously implicated in cancer causation and can actually “ruin teeth”.
6 Rinsing with a sodium bicarbonate rinse apparently reduces the amount of oral microbial flora.
7 I have noticed that teeth weakening can also be induced by a one-sided “mono-diet”, for instance eating mostly whole-grain noodles for a while. So I would advice to aim for a varied diet and, as mentioned, to always go heavy on raw organic foods and seaweed.
8 I realize this is a tautology but linguistic purity seemed of lesser importance in this case than knowing this page would thus also be found by the many thousands searching for “home remedy for bad toothache pain”, “toothache pain relief”, and similar phrases ...
I am looking for voluntary translators of this page into any language spoken in the “third world”.
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Revision May 2008
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