Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
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July 7, 2007
Toothache Sucks ..

My curse upon your venom’d stang,
That shoots my tortur’d gums alang,
And thro’ my lugs gies mony a twang,
Wi’ gnawing vengeance;
Tearing my nerves wi’ bitter pang,
Like racking engines!
[…]
Where’er that place be priests ca’ hell,
Whence a’ the tones o’ mis’ry yell,
And rankèd plagues their numbers tell,
In dreadfu’ raw,
Thou. Toothache, surely bear’st the bell
Amang them a’!

Robert Burns
Address To The Toothache

Posted by b on July 7, 2007 at 17:09 UTC | Permalink
Comments

Ah yes, modern dentistry is one thing we might miss if we had to live in times gone by. Meanwhile, until the dentist’s office opens, try something from the bar (a few wee drams of Scotch might help).

Posted by: DM | Jul 7 2007 22:07 utc | 1

Have you noticed toothaches always reach their peak late on Fridays / early on Saturdays, when you know you have the longest possible wait to get to the dentist? Young children’s fevers seem to follow the same pattern.

Posted by: mats | Jul 7 2007 22:26 utc | 2

Pack whole cloves around aching tooth and suck into tooth for an hour. Cannabis tends to make the going easier. It’s not included in VT’s new medical cannabis law; Damn. However, cloves are ok.

Posted by: Juannie | Jul 7 2007 23:46 utc | 3

Juannie pretty much got it covered with cloves. The pain is usually caused by an inflamed and infected gum brought on by the tooth infection rather than just the tooth itself so as well as cloves (oil of cloves was the best way I found to administer the stuff) an analgesic anti-inflammatory like Ibuprofen will help as well. The analgesic part does nothing. You could probably OD on smack and the tooth would still be aching. The ‘feedback’ effect something about teeths proximity to the brain causes that referred pain where teeth that are perfectly healthy start aching as well.
A broad spectrum antibiotic could also help if the gum has become infected. Doctors tend to be leery about prescribing them for toothache as dentists regard that as crossing a demarcation line, dentists being such staunch socialists (yes that is irony) can feel badly let down by their physician comrades when that occurs. Much better you pay $150 for a dentist appointment to get an antibiotic prescription that would normally cost about $25 from a family quack depending how subsidised medicine is in Germany (where I live doctors are nearly 100% subsidised and dentists not at all). The dentist then announces he can do no restorative work until the infection has cleared up so he makes another $150 appointment the following week.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Jul 8 2007 1:08 utc | 4

i always grind up an aspirin an put the stuff on the gum around the tooth — for more immediate relief.

Posted by: anna missed | Jul 8 2007 1:31 utc | 5

i use a gun

Posted by: slothrop | Jul 8 2007 1:57 utc | 6

Go to the pharmacy and buy a small tube of the maximum strength gel they sell for teething babies. It’s loaded with benzocaine, tastes awful, and numbs out the tooth and gums; with repeated applications — and a couple aspirins every four hours — it will usually make you relatively pain-free until you can get to the dentist. In the States, it’s sold under the brand name OraJel.
Hope you feel better, Berhard. Tooth aches are awful.

Posted by: Ensley | Jul 8 2007 2:13 utc | 7

Thanks all – did see the local emergency dentist on duty yesterday evening. Gum infection next to the neck of no. 5 upper right. There is a pus filled cavern visible on the x-ray. Oh f…
Got an antibiotica prescribtion, lots of ibuprofen against the pain and some cooling bags. I asked for a Scotch and weed prescription too, but the doc said Scotch is contraindicative and weed isn’t yet insurance covered. Otherwise total costs for me $0, i.e. everything is payed for by the general health insurance system I am part of.
The fever seems to have gone down over night. My right cheek is still about double its normal size, but for now there is much less pain than yesterday.
Thanks for the tip with cloves, Juannie – I’ll give it a try now.

Posted by: b | Jul 8 2007 5:28 utc | 8

Now that everything seems to be going better, I’d like to tell youall about a friend of mine who took it into his head to drive to India from Denmark in an old Mercedes he had fixed up.
Well, he should have spent more time making sure that his teeth were fixed up also before he left as he got himself a raging toothache which the dentist he found said was abcessed and had to come out. So, it was open wide my friend and the dentist quickly pulled a tooth — I said a tooth because it was not the tooth.
The dentist was apologetic, “So, sorry! I got the wrong tooth — but don’t you worry, you won’t have to pay for that one!”

Posted by: Chuck Cliff | Jul 8 2007 6:13 utc | 9

i’m an aspirin girl myself. i did try anna missed method once but it burnt right thru my gums. i’ve been lucky w/my teeth. my siblings(all 4) had braces and lots of cavities. mine were always yellow and as a little girl my dentist always told me it was thick calcium that protected my teeth. whatever. i don’t know if it makes a difference but i use a soft toothbrush and scrub the hell out of my gums, as much as my teeth every time i brush. healthy gums makes a world of difference.. i think.
brush your gums. is this TMI?

Posted by: annie | Jul 8 2007 6:19 utc | 10

Flossing is the secret of life. And please don’t go following slothrop’s advice, no matter how agonizing it gets!

Posted by: Bea | Jul 8 2007 6:51 utc | 11

And did those teeth, in ancient times…

Posted by: ralphieboy | Jul 8 2007 8:21 utc | 12

If you punch p.e.with the point of a pencil in a point near the nail of your finger index : look where de ª is. ( ªU ). Little more close to the U. , the pain will dessapear. Search the exact point with the pencil.
Mi wife is a dentist (actualy orthodontist), but I have some urgent solutions for my friends may wait the next available hour in any dental clinic.
It works! It Is acupuntura.

Posted by: curious | Jul 8 2007 8:58 utc | 13

Perhaps slothrop SHOULD follow his own advice;-)

Posted by: Bob M. | Jul 8 2007 11:26 utc | 14

i knew someone that pulled their own teeth,,,
someone else that died from an abscess (I had one once – root canal req’d)
another that saw no dentist for 20+ years (as did I) and had to have all teeth pulled & expensively replaced
these two events prompted me to see one of these medieval folk (I do very much appreciate their talent) after no flossing but regular brushing of teeth & gums
I had a broken filling (I suspected as much) and the broken tooth that had a root canal of which I had known for a long time
luckily, taps head thrice as knocking on hollow wood, that was it and a good cleaning
I like this guy and he was very good with the needles, so I’ll see him more often
interesting method to fill teeth they use these days – pack it with a white goo and shine a blue light on it to harden
apparently many dentists use guns

Posted by: jcairo | Jul 8 2007 11:44 utc | 15

So sorry b. No advice for you but I’ve been going to the local medical college and having the work done by the highly supervised students for about 20 some years. No complaints yet. It’s affordable(!) and I still have all my teeth. 🙂

Posted by: beq | Jul 8 2007 19:14 utc | 16

you should always brush your gums but use a soft brush and brush gently.otherwise as you age your gums will recede and become over sensitive.learned this the hard way.

Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 9 2007 2:23 utc | 17

17 was me

Posted by: onzaga | Jul 9 2007 2:25 utc | 18

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