Home Remedies - Part Eleven

Whether it's grandpa's secret recipe for a hot toddy, or Uncle Bob's sure fire cure for the hiccups, home remedies have been around for a long time. Between the rising cost of medicine and the length of the lines in the waiting rooms, more and more people are turning to home remedies for their minor illnesses. This series is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to home remedies. It should go without saying that the remedies in this series are for entertainment purposes only.

Toothache

* Cut a wart off a horse’s leg and rub it on the gums.
* Choke a mole with your hands behind your head and hang one of its feet around your neck.
* Stand with your back against a tree and have someone drive a nail into the tree just above your head.
- Kentucky Superstitions, 1920

Cloves have been used to treat toothaches since ancient times. Cloves are in fact included as an ingredient in almost all toothpastes and are therefore still the most widely used ingredient in dental care. The effectiveness is due to a compound called eugenol, which is present in cloves. Eugenol is a powerful anesthetic that also possesses antiseptic properties. This means that it not only offers toothache pain relief, but it also helps fight off germs that could contribute to an infection. Clove oil, put directly onto the affected tooth or dabbed with a cotton ball on the decayed tooth, relieves toothache.

You must cut a little off each fingernail and toenail, and wrap it up in white paper and rise in the morning before sunrise, don’t speak to any person or any person to you, and go towards sunrise and bore a hole in a thrifty oak tree and put the paper in the hole and drive a pin in the hole and use one of the highest names at each stroke, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. – John Stoner’s Sympathy, 1867

Garlic contains a powerful compound called allicin, which exercises a powerful antibiotic effect. This compound is released upon crushing the garlic and it is believed that this could help slow down any bacterial activity. Almost all traditional methods involve crushing the garlic, and applying or placing it against the affected tooth. A clove of garlic with a little rock salt is also effective for relieving pain and may even cure the toothache.

Since onion has antibacterial properties, chewing raw onion for three minutes is sufficient to kill all the germs in the mouth. Onions are high in sodium, rich in vitamins E and B12, and are low in fat or calories. Toothache is often allayed by placing a small piece of onion on the bad tooth or gum.

Stir the sore tooth with a needle until it draws blood; then take a thread and soak it with this blood. Then take vinegar and flour, mix them well so as to form a paste, and spread it on a rag, then wrap this rag around the root of an apple tree and tie it very close with the above thread, after which the root must be well covered with ground. – the Long Lost Friend, 1856

A salt water mouthwash gets rid of tooth infection and helps cure toothache. Mix about 3 tsp of salt with a glass of warm water and use it for gargling. The salt helps cleansing the infected tooth and reducing the swelling and pain.

A pinch of pepper powder mixed with common salt is an excellent cure. It’s especially effective against the increased sensitiveness of the teeth.

Eating a raw lime, along with the peel, can offer some much needed toothache relief. The effectiveness of lime for toothaches can probably be best explained by its rich composition of vitamin C and the lower levels of acidity as compared to lemons.

Take some newts, and those nasty beetles which are found in ferns in summertime. Calcine them in an iron pot and make a powder thereof. Wet the forefinger of the right hand and insert it in the powder and apply it to the tooth frequently, refraining from spitting it off, when the tooth will fall away without pain. It is proven. – Albertus Magnus, 1763

Rinse your mouth with your own urine three mornings and the teeth will never again ache. Fill a pipe half full of tobacco, then put a little brimstone into it and the pipe up with tobacco, light it and hold the smoke in the mouth as long as possible. – Mrs. B. Smith, 1841

Squeeze a wad of cotton wool soaked in brandy and hold it against the affected tooth to help numb the pain. You can also make the gum numb by taking a swig of whiskey and holding it over the painful tooth.

Both vanilla and almond extract contain about 35% alcohol and work wonders as a home remedy for toothache. Dip a cotton ball in either one of the extract and place on the affected tooth.

Write down with a goose-quill and ink, new-made, on the outside of the cheek, where the pain is situated, the following signs: mot, tot, fot. After this being done, light a candle, and precede therewith under the chimney. Burn the pen by the light under the hearth, until not a vestige thereof remains. All this must be done noiselessly, while the person who suffers the pain must at once put the head in a bandage, retire to bed, and remain quiet and by no means speak a word to anybody for twenty-four hours. – Egyptian Secrets, 1880

Apply a dab of “Vicks vapor rub” on the side of the face where the pain is. Place a paper towel on top and lay down in bed. The heat from the vicks absorbs into the skin and brings you toothache relief.

Gently rubbing an ice cube in the area between the forefinger and the thumb for into the V-shaped area where the bones of the thumb and forefinger meet on one hand for 5 to 7 minutes is an effective toothache remedy, as it eases toothache. It acts by overwhelming the pain impulses that usually travel along the nerve pathways. It has a 60 to 90% success rate. Ice placed directly on a throbbing tooth also helps ease the pain.