Tag Archives: chamomile

Mathew and the tooth pain from hell

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toothache

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:

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.

Getting the red and mucus out

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Dylan with pink eyeWhen we humans travel, generally we stay in a hotel or bed & breakfast for the night, not so with our dog. When we go out of town, we send Dylan to the Lucky Dog Inn and Cat Spa. It’s a wonderful place. He gets to run around in a large fenced-in area for at least three hours a day with his pals. By “pals,” I mean other dogs he gets along with. From reports, they tend to be little fluffy dogs. Apparently, Dylan is too timid to hang out with the big dogs. When he gets back home, he tends to be mellow, less needy and not so neurotic, for at least a couple of days. Then he is back to his old crazy self.

Unfortunately, this last time he came home with pink eye (conjunctivitis). Pink eye is a very contagious infection of the mucus membranes around the dog’s eyes (the conjunctiva). It leads to very sore, itchy eyes and a mucus discharge. There are many possible causes: bacteria, viral, or fungal infection, allergies, irritants, stress, injury or simply genetics.

When humans get pink eye, a common treatment is to apply a chamomile teabag. It’s very simple, all you need to do is steep the tea bag in hot water, let it cool, and then lay it directly on the infected closed eye. The person simply lies down and relaxes while the chamomile relieves the eye(s). So, we decided to try this before taking Dylan to the vet. Since, it would be awkward to hold warm tea bags or compresses over Dylan eyes for any length of time; we opted to wipe away the mucus discharge from his eyes with a tissue dipped in a chamomile and calendula infusion, and then flush the eyes with it. We use a tissue so it could be thrown away and help prevent any re-infection. We decided to combine chamomile and calendula because they both are very soothing and have great healing qualities. Chamomile is known for its antiseptic, anti-irritant, anti-microbial anti-inflammation and pain relieving properties. Calendula has many of the same healing properties.

So, every day whenever I noticed mucus discharging from his eye, I wiped it away with an infusion soaked tissue. His eyes seem to have the most discharge when he wakes up in the mornings. Within three days, there was great improvement and within a week, there was very little discharge. I will continue to be vigilant and not allow the infection to take hold again. Nevertheless, I think we found a great remedy, if he ever gets pink eye again. What do you do when your dog gets pink eye? Please share and I will continue to share.

All information is shared for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose or treat any condition.