More often than not, the pain of a toothache has been compared to labor pains during child birth. Most women who’ve been through both, would rather deliver their babies again than go through a prolonged toothache.

What is Toothache/Tooth Pain?

In medical terms, a toothache is pain centered on a tooth and the jaws that is usually caused due to decay or diseases of dental origin. The pain of a toothache can be constant, it can come and go like a throbbing pain or get triggered only when something hot, cold or sweet is consumed. This tooth pain can be mild or severe depending on the degree of decay of the tooth. The reason tooth pain is unbearable, is primarily because it is difficult to find the source of the pain. Also, in case of the tooth, the damage causes exposure of the nerve directly to the external environment. While the epicenter of the pain is the tooth, pain is usually felt right from the jaw to the ear and eyes. In some cases one can also get fever.

What causes Toothache/Tooth Pain ?

While decay of a tooth is usually the most common cause of tooth pain, the degree of decay often determines the intensity of the pain. If the pain is a lingering discomfort after consuming hot or cold foods, the cause is in all probability a reaction of nerves inside the tooth’s pulp chamber (Pulp is the part in the center of a tooth made up of living connective tissue and cells called odontoblasts). A lingering and acute pain, with its source difficult to identify, is probably due an inflamed pulp that is severely damaged. This may be visible in some cases, but may also require an Xray to be diagnosed. Whenever, we have a toothache, true to our natural habits, we try and ‘self-medicate’ or put off going to the dentist until the tooth pain is just absolutely unbearable. Self-medicating or taking over the counter pain killers is not a solution in any way. It is merely a way to temporarily subsite the pain, in return affecting one’s liver. In some circumstances, this may also aggravate the situation by masking the symptoms. There are however, tried and tested home remedies for a tooth ache that will be sure to subside and cure that unbearable lingering toothache.

Here are some of the tried and tested home remedies for a toothache that will give you that relief from the stubborn pain of a toothache.

1. Cold Compress:

   Using an ice pack when your face is swollen due to the pain will numb the pain for some time and also help to bring down the swelling caused by the toothache.

2. Clove Oil:

   Clove oil is the best natural remedy to relieve and numb pain. Apply the clove oil directly to the area the pain is being felt, or dab a cotton ball, soaked in the clove oil, on the affected area. Sometimes it can be hard to get your hands on clove oil. There’s a solution for that too. Grind a couple of cloves into a fine powder. Add a few drops of olive oil to make a paste that can be applied with the aid of a cotton ball.

3. Saline warm water:

   Rinsing your mouth with warm saline water is the most effective cure for a toothache. It helps to decrease any swelling in the mouth, cure cuts and blisters and also speed up the recovery after an extraction. It’s the easiest home remedy for a tooth ache yet. In half a glass of warm water, add half a tea spoon of salt and rinse your mouth with it 3-4 times a day.

4. Betadine Rinses:

   Betadine or the ooh so famous Laal Dawai that we’ve all had rubbed on our knees and elbows whenever we fell as kids, is by far one of the best anti-bacterial rinses you can use. Unlike in the old days, when the red to yellow stain left from the dawai lasted longer than the scab, the betadine rinse leaves no marks and is the best cure to subside any swelling and remove any infections that could be causing pain.

There are, however, multiple more so-called cures for a toothache, like using vanilla extract, onion juice, garlic cloves etc. but none of them have any concrete results to make it to the best home remedies for a toothache list. Apart from these remedies for a toothache, one must have a diligent tooth cleaning and oral hygiene routine, to prevent going through the mush dreaded tooth ache!

While I am fairly paranoid about my oral care, I find natural products work better to maintain oral health. In addition to brushing your teeth at least twice a day, I use only one of two toothpastes. Dabur Red Paste or Dabur Meswak. The fennel aftertaste of Dabur Meswak leaves your mouth feeling fresh far longer than most other toothpastes I’ve used! Meswak over others, is like the difference between chewing long lasting gum, over the 30 seconds burst of flavor and then rubber gum! Maintain proper oral hygiene and choose the right toothpaste to keep all dental problems away & ensure proper dental care.