Poor Mathew 🙁

Recently, Mathew complained of a toothache. He has had cavities, but it was the first time he ever had any “real” oral pain. We were getting ready for a trip to his grandparents in Virginia and his dentist was out of town, so we decided to continue with our plans and hope for the best.

Unfortunately, nothing I gave Mathew totally relieved the pain. Some items worked better than others and made him a bit more comfortable. Since, it was difficult to know exactly what the cause of the pain was I tried several different approaches.

The first thing Mathew did was floss, brush and then rinse his mouth with warm salt water. It didn’t relieve any pain but it cleaned out his mouth. Since Mathew had complained the prior week of headaches, I thought the pain might be related to a sinus problem, so, I made a tea that contained a variety of herbs that focused on relieving sinus and toothache pain; I chose tea because its warmth by itself soothes tooth pain.

The tea contained:

• His favorite Yogi Tea “Breathe Deep” because he loves the taste and it has a nice variety of herbs that open up airways and dry up congestion. It also provided a nice balance and good foundation for the other herbs I added to the tea;
• Goldenrod (Solidago spp.): to help dry up any sinus congestion;
• Ginger (Zingiber officinale): besides tasting great, it is anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antiviral, and relieves pain;
• Chamomile (Matricaria recutita) is also very soothing along with being anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and helps numb pain.

The tea helped Mathew relax and soothed some of the pain but it still did not eliminate it. When he started to complain more, I gave him children’s ibuprofen. It also helped but did not eliminate the pain. The next day everything seemed to get worse. I made a paste out of Ground Cloves (Syzygium aromaticum) and water and used a Q-tip to apply it to the painful area. The clove paste helped numb the area, thus reducing the pain. Cloves contain eugenol, it’s a powerful anesthetic and antiseptic that relieves pain and wipes out germs.

We did end up taking Mathew to a dentist in Virginia. After the examination and an x-ray, we were still not absolutely clear as to the cause of Mathew’s pain, nor why nothing seemed to stop the pain. The guess was it was decay behind the filling. We agreed to have the filling cleaned out and filled with a temporary medicated pain reliever to get him through the visit until he could see his dentist. The medication used in the filling had Clove oil in it. The procedure did relieve some of Mathew’s pain. However, the dentist was confused that even with the Novocain to perform the procedure Mathew still experienced pain. Nothing seemed to eradicate the pain.

I asked Mathew what remedy helped reduce the pain the best, he felt the Ground Clove paste worked the best as it numbed the area and the tea helped soothe him. Unfortunately, when the Ground Clove paste wore off, the pain came back worse than before. The children’s ibuprofen and acetaminophen worked equally as well. The dentist recommended that we switch back and forth using ibuprofen or acetaminophen, which we did, as well as use Ground Clove paste. Mathew sipped tea throughout the day. He was comfortable but definitely not pain free.

Mathew went to his dentist in New York, who felt the all he needed was a pulpectomy, which is a dental procedure in which all of the material in the pulp chamber and root canal of a tooth is removed (it sounds like a root canal to me, but only takes 20 minutes to do). Then a filling is put in, pain is gone, and the tooth will fall out when Mathew’s adult tooth is ready to appear. At least that was the plan. So we tried that, but when we left, Mathew experienced more pain than before. Thank goodness, it dissipated during the next 24 hours. Hopefully, this is the end to the drama and will inspire Mathew to take better care of his teeth.

Have you ever had a tooth pain that could not be relieved? What did you do? Please share and I will continue to share.

All information is shared for educational purposes only and has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.  This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.