Toothache is one of the most uncomfortable and painful experience one can have. How can you defend yourself from it while you wait to get to a place that can provide an emergency dental checkup? It can be difficult to pinpoint where it hurts. Most of the time, your whole oral cavity just radiates with pain that you wish you could just sleep on it.
But sometimes, desperate times call for desperate measures. You may find yourself twisting and turning late at night and are wishing for the pain to stop, but you have to wait until morning for the clinics to open. When the medicine that is supposed to help you cope with the pain do not seem to work anymore, you try anything just to see if it will give you relief. There are things you have at home that you may not know can help ease the pain.
Salt Gargle
Remember that your mouth is a passageway for all sorts of food, and there are a lot of substances you do not see with your naked eye. These substances can linger long after you have swallowed your last bite. These can carry bacteria that can infect your mouth if you have open wounds on your tongue or gums. When you have some teeth that are decayed, they can also be a haven for bad bacteria, which can infect the roots and give you tremendous pain.
If you want to have your mouth flushed out and cleaned of these organisms, you can try to mix salt and water and gargle it. Salt has antibacterial properties, and swirling it will let you reach crevices and pockets in your mouth that you will otherwise not be able to with a toothbrush or floss.
Cotton Plug
If you do not care for your teeth, some of them can rot and leave you with some whose shapes become weird. Some are unlucky enough to have a tooth that has a hole right in the middle. This is a difficult one to handle because it can be filled in with the food that you eat. If it stays there long enough, it may attract bad bacteria. When hollowed out, though, it might expose some nerves that can be sensitive to the touch or even the air. You can try to cover it up with a piece of cotton. This effectively covers the tooth and hides the nerve ending away, and this might give you temporary relief.
Ginger
This is a vegetable stem best known for the spice it provides many dishes with. It has a bitter taste, and the degree of spiciness can vary. But it is mild in general. It also has antibacterial and antiseptic properties. Some people find it effective to bite or chew on them with their infected teeth. The spiciness can be numbing, which makes sense since that can block out the pain.
You do not want to wish toothache even on your worst enemy; that is how bad it is. A lot of people have gone through it, and it can be seen as a rite of passage. It is good that there are home remedies that can at least alleviate the pain even for a short while. Just remember that if it continues to persist, go see your dentist so that you can have a more permanent solution.
