Emergency Relief in Case Of a Toothache
Emergency Relief in Case Of a Toothache
A toothache must be the most painful of all other kinds of pain that I can think of. The worst part of this symptom, or the toothache that I am talking about, is that it occurs usually in the middle of the night when everybody else is fast asleep! Yes, that includes your dentist and the chemist shops too, unless you are lucky enough to be staying close to one of the 24hrs open types. This toothache will either be a sharp, throbbing and continuous or a nagging kind of pain that just won’t fade away.
So, what can you do in this kind of an emergency? For, it is an emergency for you to get relief from that pain as soon as you can, so that you can at least go back to sleep and think of finally making that “fearful” and as yet much “postponed” trip to the DENTIST, that you didn’t want to in the first place!
Well, the first thing I would recommend you to do is something that you should have done much before you could get any pain, and that is stocking your medicine box with painkillers. If you have done that, then half your problems are solved. All you need is a strong painkiller that you can easily get ‘over the counter’ at the chemist. There are different kinds of painkillers that are available like: paracetamol, aspirin, dispirin, ibuprofen, mefenamic acid etc…
Now, before you start taking any medication, I would recommend you to follow these simple steps:
· Take warm water with a little salt in it and rinse out your mouth thoroughly so as to clean any debris or food particle that may be stuck in between your teeth and gums. You may add an antiseptic mouthwash to this water also if you have any.
· Use floss, and or a toothpick if required to remove any particles that may be stuck in between the teeth.
· If this hasn’t taken care of the pain and it still persists then check yourself and see if you have any swelling intraorally or extraorally, (inside the mouth or outside the mouth in relation to the offending tooth) and or any discharge. Do you have any fever? If your answer is no to all the above questions then you are in a better position.
· If you have answered NO to the above questions then go ahead and take a painkiller. A paracetamol and ibuprofen combination would be best, as it would take care of pain and inflammation together. However, if you do not have paracetamol and ibuprofen then you can take one tablet of any other painkiller like aspirin, or dispirin or mefenamic acid for the time being.
· Now, since a medicine takes some time to act, in the meantime you could try to apply some clove oil (eugenol) to the tooth in question. This gives instant relief. The other alternative to this is clove, which can be crushed and placed on the tooth. Bite on it for a few minutes. However, do not place anything like aspirin or clove between your gums and teeth, as it will burn the tissue.
· Another alternative is to simply keep water in your mouth; it gives relief to the toothache. (This is my personal experience) The water should not be hot or cold.
These simple steps should take care of your toothache till the morning when you can then rush to your dentist (which you must) for immediate treatment. The dentist can then prescribe the proper medicines and antibiotics if required, according to the condition of the tooth.
· In case you find that you have a swelling intraorally or extraorally along with fever then you can take the painkiller as mentioned above to relieve the pain and inflammation. You can also apply some ice to the affected area from outside for five to ten minutes, which will provide some relief.
· However, DO NOT apply heat to the affected area as this will only exacerbate the condition even more and help in spreading the infection to deeper parts.
In this case, you probably have an abscess that needs to be drained and the tooth has to be extracted at the earliest. Therefore, visit the DENTIST in the morning as soon as possible so that he can prescribe antibiotics and appropriate painkillers and treat the abscess at the earliest.
*Pregnant women, and people who suffer from any other complications like asthma, heart problems or diabetes etc, need to be cautious about ANY medication that they take, and should consult with a doctor beforehand about such emergencies.
Read another article: How To Recognise and Take Care Of The Cracked Tooth Syndrome!
http://www.xomba.com/how_to_recognise_and_take_care_of_the_cracked_tooth_syndrome
Submitted by - dentist |
- emergency |
- Health & Medicine |
- medication |
- pain |
- painkillers |
- relief |
- toothache |
Related Articles
- Login or register to post comments |
- 248 reads |
- Email this page |
- Printer-friendly version |
- rawnak's Xombytes |
Very Helpful
This is really very helpful advise, rawnak.
thanks for the info. Always HATE going to the Dentist!
Cracked Tooth
I cracked my tooth a few years back at a party.
I was eating a pretzel and evidentially that ruptured my wisdom tooth.
I didn't feel it at the time thanks to vodka, but the next morning it hurt like hell.
So, I began to call every dentist in the phone book looking for one that was open on Saturday. Needless to say I found one and had the tooth removed.
Guess you didn't need....
Looking at the way you are progressing, guess you didn't need that "wisdom" Tooth in any case!
Pulling out a wisdom tooth can be a very painful affair, at times! Both for the dentist as well as the patient! Hope you had a speedy recovery and minimum discomfort!
LOL
Cute, now you're embarrassing me. :)
I was pretty scared, but it wasn't that big of a deal.
A year after that I had to have the rest of my wisdom teeth removed 2 of which were impacted.
So they put me asleep and sawed them in half. Recovery wasn't fun and I am glad I will never have to do that again.
However, my complications arose because I had a stupid piece of root stuck in my gum that took forever to pop out.
Advanced dentistry!
well, you are lucky to be in America, which uses the most advanced dentistry procedures, for eg. giving general anesthesia or any other anesthesia that puts you to sleep while they pull out your tooth. That doesn't happen here in India very often, at least not to my knowledge? We do all the normal cases under local anesthesia only and the patient is fully aware of everything that is going on to him as well as the dentist! LOL....
Some very complicated cases of impactions can take upto 2-3 hrs also, which would require the dentist to repeat the local anesthesia injection at least once more in between the procedure. Only the medically compromised patients are taken to the OT where the procedure is done under GA.
In India, we don't even use laughing gas (nitrous oxide) which is a very common form of giving anesthesia to a patient.(again, not to my knowledge)! The only place that I saw the really sophisticated advanced dentistry being practiced was in PGI, Chandigarh, where I worked for a year as a resident. There too they never used GA on any of the normal cases.
well, things are changing now, with the advent of medical tourism in India blooming at an alarming pace, I am sure that the dental procedures also must be advancing rapidly to match up to the rest of the advanced worlds!
Congratulations on the Front Page!
This is a wonderful and very useful article! I've bookmarked it and am going to print it out to keep in my "emergency information" notebook for things I need access to in a hurry (would hate to be in pain because of a faulty Internet connection! LOL).
It looks like I have some shopping to do, as well, at my local drug store. I've not had any emergency-type tooth pain, but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't be prepared for it.
I can personally attest to the effectiveness of the salt water rinse followed by the mouthwash, too.
ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING
could be worse
At least you don't just give bottles of whiskey out.
Wow , Am on the front page!
Wow, This is really great. Can't believe that I made it to the front page. Thanks to the staff at xomba for picking my byte. There were quite a few good bytes out there and I know deciding on which one to put can be a very challenging task.
maybe you should consider increasing the number of bytes that can appear on the front page?
Nice Info to Sink Teeth Into
How right, toothaches seem to choose a time to happen when one is so vulnerable - in the dead of the night. This will arm us with some options.
And congrats rawnak, for being on the front page. I knew you'd make it !
toothache
can be such a pain...wonder how people dare to go for cosmetic dentistry (not that i know much abt it, maybe u can tell us next time!) great article!
Make Money. Join XOMBA!
Super Helping Post
May Almighty God help you for this awesome needful article , Weldone. Wish many more good article from you.
Make $2000 Monthly Free
Emergency Dental Relief
A most interesting and helpful article. Been there, done that and it "ain't no picnic." You have delved deep into the cures for nocturnal dental pain and I (for one) appreciate your input. Thank you for making this public. And congratulations on achieving the front page. You got my vote...
zeke
Thanks to all the readers!
I wish to thank you all who have commented on this post and appreciated it. Thanks a ton. It is indeed very motivating to know that people appreciate what you write.
Good advice and I will book mark it
Celanith
Thanks for some very helpful advice. I did know about the cloves or oil of clove. My problem is no money for dental care. Nor even emergency so I keep putting things off and hope when I do go in I somehow have the money. Don't have and cannot afford medical or dental insurance.
Glad you liked the post!
Thanks Celanith. Am glad that you liked the post. I have also written a article on hair care this summer. You can read it here:
http://www.xomba.com/how_to_take_care_of_your_hair_this_summer
Hope you like that too.
I have been reading your posts and feel sorry that you are feeling alienated on this site! You can find a lot of interesting topics here if you search for them by category. You may like to read my blog:
http://kanwarpriya.blogspot.com/
Hope you find it useful. You can bookmark it too.
It's sad to note that the senior citizens are having to struggle with their medical and dental insurance or payments in this manner. I recently posted a blurb of a grandmother who had to pull out her own teeth as she couldn't find any dentist who was willing to take her case.
http://www.xomba.com/grandma_pulls_out_own_teeth
And there have been many such incidences on the rise according to that news report. This is really very shocking and sad state of affairs! What are we coming to?
gud info about touthache
It is a good info about touthache treatment. Thanks.
SEO Articles
http://www.cleararticles.com/
Thanks for the advice. I
Thanks for the advice. I just found another dentist and I'm not yet comfortable enough with him so I prefer to see him only if it's an emergency. For the rest of you who need a new dentist, there's the Scottsdale cosmetic dentistry where I found mine. You can change the area and find one closer to your home.
Great Tips From a Pro
Free advice from a Dentist. You can't beat that! Thank goodness I make regular appointments with my Dentist to avoid those toothaches and other problems.
Thailand Dental Clinic Listings
Thanks again
Mary and Free SEO resouces