Toothache
Toothache
The Choco Indians have lived for probably thousands of years in eastern Panama and adjacent Colombia. Today, unfortunately, they are disappearing, victims of "development." I've worked more closely with them than with any other Indian group.
As early as 1960, my Choco confidants told me about a plant of the genus Piper, a close relative of black pepper, which they used as a remedy for toothache. They handed me a twig, and when I bit into it, my mouth went numb.
You certainly won't have access to the Chocos' plant. But another tropical toothache herb is probably sitting in your spice rack right now. It's clove, the flower buds of a tropical tree. Oil of clove contains a great deal of the anesthetic, antiseptic chemical eugenol. Cloves are 5 to 20 times richer in eugenol than other eugenol sources listed in my database. In fact, many dentists use it as a dental anesthetic and pain reliever, especially when doing root canals.
There's no need to define toothache. I've suffered quite a few over the years, and to this day, I stupidly procrastinate about going to the dentist. It turns out that I'm not alone. An estimated 98 percent of Americans have dental cavities, according to the National Institute of Dental Research.
All this adds up to millions of toothaches a year. Any persistent toothache should be checked by a dentist, but fortunately, you don't have to suffer on your way there, thanks to some good herbs.
Jungle Wisdom At the beginning of this chapter, I mentioned a pepper plant that the Choco Indians use to numb the pain of toothache. I encountered this plant again years later, on my first ecotour to Iquitos, Peru. My Indian guide pointed to the plant and reiterated that it relieves toothache. He pulled it up by the root, scraped off the dirt and invited me to bite into it. As before, it immediately anesthetized my mouth. Fruits and roots of some species of pepper plants are known to contain anesthetic compounds. Even black pepper contains some. People who have lived for thousands of years in the world's jungles have toothache remedies that really work. And that's the main reason I wrote this book--to show that traditional medicine has legitimate scientific value. Scientific critics counter that "old folk tales" are no match for Western-style scientific experimentation. But the basis of science is careful observation, and that's what traditional peoples have been doing since time immemorial--observing and experimenting with the world around them. In general, traditional people have managed to select the good medicines and have rejected the bad, leading to what we today call folk medicine. Most of these folk medicines have thousands of years of experimental selection behind them, and few are associated with adverse reactions. That's something that you really can't say about our modern pharmaceuticals, only a few of which have been on this earth for more than a hundred years. All too often, synthetic drugs turn out to be hazardous. This is evidenced by the number of pharmaceuticals that the Food and Drug Administration orders withdrawn because of adverse reactions. |
Green Pharmacy for Toothache
The use of herbal oils for toothache is not new to scientific dentistry. As early as 1946, M. A. Lesser published a review in the journal Drug and Cosmetic Industry entitled "Preparations for Toothache." He noted that essential herbal oils "are the chief active ingredients of toothache preparations. Of these, oil of clove and eugenol are undoubtedly most important . . . "
Clove (Syzygium aromaticum). Germany's Commission E, the body of natural medicine experts that makes herbal recommendations to that country's counterpart of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), endorses oil of clove as a local anesthetic and antiseptic for toothache. Even a scientific committee reporting to our FDA commented that oil of clove was the only one of 12 ingredients commonly found in toothache preparations that was "safe and effective for temporary use on a tooth with throbbing pain."
You can buy over-the-counter preparations of clove oil to use yourself to numb toothache. The oil is placed directly on the tooth, not ingested.
Ginger (Zingiber officinale). A compress made with this hot spice seems to help alleviate toothache pain. I'd add more heat to such a compress myself, in the form of red pepper. Both ginger and red pepper seem to work like the old mustard plasters. They act as counterirritants, meaning that the surface irritation of the ginger or red pepper helps to diminish the deeper toothache pain.
To make a compress for your tooth, mix the powdered spice or spices in enough water to form a gooey paste. Then dip in a small cotton ball and wring it out. Apply the cotton directly to the tooth without letting it touch your gum. If you can't stand the heat, rinse your mouth and try some other remedy.
Red pepper (Capsicum, various species). In 1992, while the world celebrated Columbus's voyage, I celebrated the introduction of red pepper outside America. Columbus was introduced to the spice by the Caribbean Indians.
When applied to the skin, capsaicin, the hot ingredient in red pepper, burns for a while, but it depletes the action of substance P, the chemical in the body responsible for transmitting pain. In addition, red pepper is fairly well endowed with salicylates, aspirin-like chemicals that can relieve pain. It's no wonder that this herb is an old folk remedy for toothache. To use red pepper on a toothache, use the cotton compress technique described for ginger.
Toothache tree (Zanthoxylum americanum). This tree got its name because it's an old folk remedy for toothache. The late Alabama folk herbalist Tommie Bass recommended it right up until he died in 1996. He suggested chewing the bark or making a tea out of the bark or berries. I know from chewing on the twigs that it has anesthetic properties. This one may be a little hard to locate, but you may be able to find the dried herb in a shop that specializes in herbs.
Willow (Salix, various species). For my toothaches, I have on occasion resorted to chewing a wad of willow bark and then tamping it into the painful tooth to temporarily alleviate the pain. Willow bark contains salicin, a chemical relative of aspirin that has considerable pain-relieving power. You can also drink a tea made from the herb or take a tincture to help banish the pain. (If you are allergic to aspirin, however, you probably shouldn't use aspirin-like herbs, either.)
Rhubarb (Rheum officinale). Rhubarb root is used for toothache in China, where they call it da-huang. They prepare a toothache remedy by frying the root, then steeping it in alcohol to create a tincture. Then, using a cotton ball, they apply the tincture directly to the painful tooth for five minutes.
I'd try this if I couldn't find the better herbs mentioned earlier. Rhubarb contains at least six pain-relieving chemical compounds.
Sesame (Sesamum indicum). Pharmacognosist (natural product pharmacist) Albert Leung, Ph.D., shares this fourth-century Chinese folk remedy for toothache: Boil one part sesame seed with two parts water until half the liquid remains. The resulting decoction, when applied directly to the tooth, was said to work wonders for toothache and gum disease. There's good reason to believe that this treatment might work, as sesame contains at least seven pain-relieving compounds.
