Zen-Haven February 19 2013
Here’s the deal. It’s the weekend (or, like me, you are on vacation in the middle of the ocean) and your tooth starts to hurt.
The pain has become so bad you can not eat, can not concentrate and whoa! you can not even enjoy yourself and have fun. What’s a gal or guy to do?
Let me let you in on a secret: you can temporarily mitigate the pain and suffering with oil of clove, an inexpensive and readily available essential oil. Here is what you do:
Put a few drops of clove oil on a cotton ball, place the ball on your sore tooth and bite down. Keep you mouth shut for about 5 minutes as the oil numbs the pain and kills the bacteria.
Afterward, remove the cotton ball and mix a bit of the clove oil (6 to 8 drops will do it), water, and salt into a cup. Swish this around in your mouth for about a minute and spit out. You should feel a whole lot better!
Note: Undiluted clove oil can cause burning and even nerve damage, so be sure to dilute it if you are applying it to sensitive skin tissue. You can still use it directly on a tooth by applying it to a cotton ball or cotton swab first.
So back to my little episode on the ship. Turns out I needed a root canal (which by the way, these days is a piece of cake except for the pain to the wallet). The dentist had one word of advice for me: when in pain, use clove oil. As as matter of fact, he told me that it was a bit of clove oil on a cotton swab that provided preliminary numbing prior to my procedure.