What can be done at home to relieve severe toothache

Next you will find out:

• what can be done at home if the tooth suddenly began to hurt badly (including under a filling or a crown);
• which means are usually used to relieve acute toothache, and which of them are most effective;
• what can threaten long-term home treatment and delaying the visit to the doctor;
• useful and useless methods of relieving toothache - which options are better not to even try ...

There are a lot of situations when a tooth is sore and you need to do something urgently to relieve pain at home. And, perhaps, the most typical case is when the sufferer tries in every way to delay a visit to the doctor with the hope that the pain will gradually go away by itself, and in the future, perhaps, it will not even appear at all.

About the destructiveness of such an attitude to their own health, we'll talk a little lower. In the meantime, we only note that if a tooth aches, there is always a reason for this, and if you don’t eliminate it on time, then in most cases the situation will only get worse with time. Accordingly, the first what to do with a strong toothache - Call a doctor and make an appointment.

However, there are also situations where a tooth or gum may hurt, but urgent treatment is not required. For example:

1. After some operations, for example, immediately after tooth extraction (in the language of dental surgeons, tooth extraction can be simple and complex, and sometimes simple removal causes pain on the first day even more than complicated. All individually. Painkillers are prescribed by the doctor on the first day after tooth extraction is required);
2. When a wisdom tooth cuts through or another tooth of a child (however, wisdom teeth are not so simple either - often lower wisdom teeth without timely treatment are erupting with pathologies requiring surgical intervention. It is not by chance that a painful dentition even has a special name - pericoronitis);
3. Immediately after installing the crown, before it adapts to the gum (crowns can cause discomfort after fixation, especially those that are fixed slightly under the gum edge, although sharp pains are practically excluded).

In such cases, pain can usually be relieved at home, without fear for the severe consequences of "long-suffering."

But most often the teeth hurt because of various pathologies: due to deep caries, pulpitis or periodontitis, and in these cases the pain can vary from mild and quickly passing to very sharp and constant. In addition, swelling of the gums and cheeks (edema), fever, headache and other unpleasant symptoms may occur.

Let's see what can be done at home to alleviate the suffering when the tooth hurts badly, and for one reason or another it is not possible to immediately get to the doctor.

 

Pharmaceutical Tooth Pain Relievers

Modern painkillers in the form of tablets, water-soluble powders and drops are the most effective means to relieve acute toothache, far surpassing the effectiveness of various popular methods. Analgesics give quick results, provide a sufficiently long action, and today are available for use at home to almost everyone.

The following drugs are most commonly used to relieve toothache:

• Analgin - previously one of the most popular and affordable tools, which, however, today is very outdated. It usually helps with weak aching toothache, but with pulpitis, when acute pain is felt, its effectiveness may be insufficient. Analgin also has a pronounced antipyretic effect. It should be borne in mind that this drug has long been banned for use in many countries around the world due to dangerous side effects.
• Aspirin - many people know him as an antipyretic, but he also copes well with not very strong toothache. However, aspirin will not help with acute pain.
• Nimesil is a much stronger remedy than the previous two. With it, severe toothache is almost completely eliminated, regardless of etiology. The duration of its action is 4-5 hours. The main disadvantage of Nimesil - leave only on prescription, which significantly limits the use of the drug at home.
• Ketans - one of the most powerful drugs that helps relieve even a very strong toothache.It takes about half an hour after taking the pill, and the pain completely subsides, usually after an hour and a half. The total duration of the drug is 5-6 hours. Ketans also belong to prescription drugs, and to buy it you will need to first visit the doctor (although in practice, many pharmacies, departing from the law, sell it freely without a prescription).

In terms of their potency, Ketorol, Ketorolac, Dolak and Ketalgin are the closest analogues of Ketanov. Of these, Dolak can be bought at a pharmacy without a prescription. All of these tools are available in pill form. They are taken strictly according to the instructions, or on special instructions of the doctor (usually 1 tablet 2-3 times a day).

If a tooth hurts a child, you need to carefully read the instructions about the admissibility of the use of the appropriate drug in children and strictly maintain the recommended children's dosage.

Also at home, it is sometimes possible to use solutions of Lidocaine and Novocain. These are quite effective local anesthetics, which are not used at all as tablets: solutions simply drip directly onto the aching tooth with a deep carious cavity (or put a cotton wool dipped in the carious cavity).Provided that the carious cavity has a message with the pulp chamber, after a short time there is a loss of tooth sensitivity - a kind of “freezing” effect. It usually lasts no more than an hour.

Important!

It should be borne in mind that Novocain (in particular) is one of the most allergenic anesthetics today, so care must be taken.

In addition, no matter how severe the toothache, using any drugs at home, it is very important not to exceed the dosage. Usually 1-2 tablets are enough for the drug to have the maximum effect possible for it. You do not need to swallow many pills at once, as exceeding the recommended dosages is fraught with serious side effects and poisonings.

Before taking any medications, it is advisable to consult a doctor - at least by telephone.

Feedback

“Yesterday I was still climbing walls, I didn’t know what to do, my tooth ached so much. Analgin I can not drink because of the kidneys. As a result, she spent the whole night in the bathroom, rinsed her mouth. In the clinic I thought that I would come, I would quickly fill up a tooth and that's it. But no! I got flux there with pus. The doctor said that in general, the tissue is normal, the tooth can be treated, but only when the purulent inflammation passes. I prescribed special medications and a pain prescription for Ketorol gave.With these pills it is absolutely good, they completely relieve the pain, but you cannot drink them for a long time ... ”

Katya, Tver

 

What threatens the habit of removing toothache pills

It is important to understand that pain is a symptom of pathology, and the stronger it is, the stronger the damage is in the tooth itself or in the surrounding tissues. If a tooth is sore, it is a direct signal that it needs to be urgently treated, but it will not be possible to do it at home.

In practice, in many such cases, people are simply afraid to go to the dentist or don’t want to spend money on treatment, hoping that the tooth will go away by itself. So suffer a toothache until the last, until it becomes unbearable. But even in this case, when the exhausted body tries to tell the owner that it is impossible to continue further, because the consequences will be very sad, a person often runs not to the dental clinic, but to buy powerful pills in the pharmacy to somehow relieve the pain.

The result of this approach are a variety of dental diseases and their complications:

1. Caries, which at different stages can manifest itself as a weak and quickly passing pain, and quite strong pain sensations.If such a toothache is suppressed at home with pills, the carious process will inevitably reach the pulp, lead to pulpitis - and this is much more severe pain, and the treatment of such a tooth will be connected with the need to remove the “nerve” from it. This is often a long and expensive procedure, especially in the case of multichannel teeth.
2. Pulpitis, which manifests itself as a strong toothache, often aggravated at night. If in this case, to try to be treated at home, just removing the pain with pills, then you can play up to periodontitis, flux and festering fistulas in the gums. Moreover, the removal of a tooth in some such cases is far from the saddest consequence.
3. Odontogenic osteomyelitis, phlegmon, sepsis - all these complications can already threaten human life.

It is also dangerous to endure toothache under the crown (especially if the pain suddenly appeared under a long-established crown). The presence of unpleasant sensations here indicates the development of a hidden pathological process, the extent of which can be assessed only in a picture in the clinic. Similar is the situation when tooth hurts under filling (long established) - in such cases the problem cannot be solved at home, a mandatory visit to the doctor is required.

On a note

Even a newly installed seal normally should not cause acute and prolonged spontaneous aching pain. Prolonged pain from irritants (cold, hot, etc.), as well as pain when biting on a sealed tooth, is also not a reason to endure, since it often leads to pulpitis and / or periodontitis sooner or later.

It often happens that there are no organic changes in the pulp, but on the side of the sealed-up tooth it is impossible to chew. Reason: the technique of setting the filling material is violated or this material does not suit a specific person. It is not expedient to wait for months and endure in such a situation, since it suffices to simply change the seal under the guarantee and (or) put it in a different way.

Thus, the means for relieving toothache should be used only for a short time - while waiting for a qualified dentist help. Attempting to avoid treatment with painkillers is nothing but an independent destruction of one's health in general, and of teeth in particular.

Feedback

“I started this two weeks ago ... Before that, the tooth ached periodically, but there was nothing extraordinary. And then I feel that it starts to hurt very badly, then my cheek is still swollen. I called the doctor, he writes me down only the next day, and I already have a face, as if I have picked up nuts for my cheek! The doctor said to rinse your mouth with warm water, and went all day with warm tea in her mouth. Then she found out that it was periostitis on the background of inflammation of the nerve in the tooth. Until now, I still have not completely recovered, I hope that next week there will be a last visit to the doctor. ”

Olga, Moscow

 

Warm rinses: why they are needed and how to do them correctly

Oddly enough, warm mouthwash helps with many diseases of the teeth and gums. They, of course, do not replace the treatment and do not eliminate the disease itself, but they often can actually significantly reduce pain, and, moreover, wash the inflamed tissue, removing part of the pus, if there is one.

And, by and large, it is not so important what exactly the rinsing is done. Another thing is important:

1. Rinse your mouth need a liquid with a temperature of about 45 ° C. Above it is impossible - you can get burned.If the temperature is close to room temperature, the effect will be much lower.
2. You need to rinse often - at least once per hour, and preferably every 30 minutes. In this case, you need to rinse your mouth, not your throat.

For such household gargles you can use plain water, saline (a teaspoon of salt per liter of water), water with baking soda, decoctions of herbs with anti-inflammatory activity - chamomile, peppermint, string, immortelle, sage. You can also use a decoction of oak bark.

It is desirable to rinse your mouth even when the pain has passed or subsided - until the visit to the doctor.

Another tip about pain relief at home:

“I want to share my experience, as I tried to treat myself for a toothache. Last summer my tooth ached a lot, so I just took a glass of warm water, added a quarter spoon of soda to it and rinsed my mouth with this solution every half hour. In parallel, drank mint tea, it calms. The next day, the pain subsided a bit, but a swelling of the cheek appeared. She continued to rinse, but she also prepared a decoction of oak bark and added it to the rinse solution. The pain was already so nagging, unpleasant, but not sharp. But the tumor did not pass for a long time.A week later, I could not stand it and went to the doctor. And there everything turned out to be serious, I even had to have an operation ... "

Ksenia, Moscow

But it is categorically impossible to warm the cheek outside of the patient's tooth - it will only lead to a strong increase in edema without any positive effect (those who try to warm the swollen cheek outside with a heater, or clinging to the radiator, are always convinced that such an approach is inappropriate).

 

Useless and even harmful folk remedies for relieving toothache at home

People persistently continue to "circulate" several popular methods, supposedly capable of soothing even severe toothache, which, however, cannot be recommended for use at home. Moreover, some of these methods are frankly harmful.

For example:

1. Drinking alcohol inside or rinsing the mouth with alcoholic beverages. To get drunk regularly with toothache is perhaps even worse than suppressing pain with pills. As for rinsing - alcohol in most cases will not affect the intensity of toothache, except that the mouth cavity is antiseptic, but for this purpose it is better to use herbal extracts or oak bark.
2. Some popular methods of removing toothache suggest frequent treatment of the tooth with honey. However, it should be borne in mind that honey and solutions containing it are excellent food for cariogenic bacteria, while glucose and fructose, of which honey consists, do not have any anesthetic effect on the aching tooth.
3. Garlic and horseradish, which are recommended to lay in the carious cavity of the patient's tooth or to make on their basis compresses in gauze. If the carious cavity has a message with the pulp chamber, in most cases this will cause only a significant increase in pain due to irritation of the so-called inflamed pulp.

By the way speaking

If you keep the gruel of garlic in a deep carious cavity for a long time, then, having suffered extreme pain, you can kill the “nerve”, and the pain will almost all subside. However, the dead pulp in the following days will begin to gradually decompose (rot) right inside the tooth, so a visit to the doctor will still not be avoided.

If a tooth hurts under the crown, then at home there is little that can be done - no folk lotions and recipes usually do not help. At best, it will be possible to relieve inflammation of the gums.

 

If a child has a toothache ...

The destruction of even baby teeth in a child can lead to no less dangerous consequences than in adults, and the toothache in childhood is usually accompanied by screams and crying. Attempts to somehow endure a toothache at home, in the hope that the baby teeth will soon fall out - this is a big mistake of the parents and even, one might say, a mockery of the baby. In some cases, delaying a visit to the dentist may put an end to the child’s healthy teeth in the future.

Therefore, the first thing that a conscientious parent should do in this case is to try to take your child back to the doctor as soon as possible. And only if an immediate visit is impossible, then you will have to fight at home for a while with a toothache. Below are some tools that can help, but consulting a doctor before using them still does not hurt.

1. Nurofen is for children - it can be used by children from 3 months, it allows pretty good even to relieve pain. Suitable for older children.
2. Nurofen tablets or capsules - can be used to relieve toothache in children over 12 years old (at a dosage of 200 mg 3-4 times a day).To relieve pain as quickly as possible, you can use 400 mg 3 times a day. Children from 6 to 12 years old are recommended for 200 mg, but not more than 4 times a day. In any case, the maximum dosage is 800 mg per day, it can not be exceeded. "Adult" varieties of Nurofen should be given to children whose body weight is more than 20 kg. It is better to give Nurofen children for children with weight less than 20 kg. Recommended by the instruction a safe time interval between taking the drug is at least 6 hours, and for tablets of prolonged action - 12 hours.
3. Nimesil - give half a packet (children over 12 years old) once or twice a day, depending on the age and strength of the toothache.
4. Or you can carry out rinsing with warm water with anti-inflammatory drugs - perhaps this option is many times better for health than any pills. It is advisable to choose decoctions of herbs (chamomile, sage), but you can also rinse with soda-salt solutions in weak concentrations, if the child does not mind this "biaki." If the rinsing does not help, then only in this situation it will be possible to recall the pills.

On a note

Do not even think to give the child Analgin.It is time for all parents to remember that Analgin is a dangerous medicine, albeit an extremely cheap one. Often causes agranulocytosis.

It is important to remember that gums often hurt young children while teething their milk teeth. This is probably the only case when a visit to the dentist is not required. But it will be useful for the pediatrician to show the child - the doctor will be able to confirm precisely that the pain in the child arose precisely because of the teething.

Drugs for teething pain:

• Gels based on lidocaine and menthol: Kamistad, Dentinox, Dr. Baby, etc.
• Anti-inflammatory and analgesic candles and syrups: Ibuprofen syrup, Viburcol candles and others.

Before using these products it is also recommended that you first consult with your doctor.

And in conclusion, let's say a few more words about the faith of some people in all sorts of plots and prayers of toothache, in a variety of homeopathic remedies and self-hypnosis. Even if we assume that people who own the technique of self-hypnosis can really control their own pain, including toothache, then it is unlikely that even a meditation guru can “plug” the carious cavity or revive the rotting pulp in the root canals.And in case of acute toothache, it is better to rush not to an old woman healer, but still to see a dentist, even if he takes more money from you for the treatment.

Feedback

“I will tell the story of prescription exactly a week. Everything is very trite: my tooth ached. And he got sick very much, and not just whined. I have a track record of seminars from Milton Erickson, his daughter, and about 10 experts in the field of NLP and self-hypnosis from the top twenty in the world. It is clear that the first thing I did - sat down, turned on a trance and turned off the pain. She passed me and the tooth did not hurt while I was doing important things. Do you know what I did when I was free? Called your dentist. He is a professional guy and his work is more expensive than the work of 95% of other dentists in St. Petersburg. And all because I know that if the tooth is rotten to the nerve, then no self hypnosis will help me restore it. ”

Oleg, St. Petersburg

 

An interesting video about how you can quickly relieve toothache at home without the use of pills

 

About the removal of toothache with garlic (this means only in the most extreme case - for extreme lovers)