Garlic: a Natural Remedy for Toothache Relief

On Christmas Eve morning in 2006, I awoke to a horrific toothache. It was awful and unexpected, my tooth hadn't been bothering me. I called my dentist, but he was unavailable because of the holiday. So I called his backup, but didn't get a call back.

I went to the local drugstore and bought one of every toothache relief they had. Went home and tried them all, to no relief. I thought I was going to loose my mind from the pain and the lack of relief.

I was talking to a friend a few hours later, telling her about the agony I was in, when she suggested using garlic. She knew how fond I was of using natural remedies and the fact that I was desperate. I listened carefully to her instructions and tried it out.

I was amazed, I felt relief within a few minutes. I kept up with my garlic regime until I was able to see my dentist almost a week later.

So when you have a toothache and need relief, here's what you can do.

Get a head of fresh garlic. Yes, this is going to make your breath smell bad, but the lack of pain is more than worth it.

Take a small clove, peel it and cut in half. If you want you can use a little less than half.

Put it in your mouth and chew. You want it roughly chewed, not too fine. I'll warn you, it will burn in your mouth. Try to just grin and bare it.

Use your tongue to move the garlic to the tooth that hurts. You want to pack it nicely around the offending tooth.

Let it sit there for a good 5 minutes or more. After a little while, the burning won't be so bad. You want to give the oil from the garlic time to soak into your gum and the tooth. Just give it some time to work its magic.

Then you can spit out the garlic or swallow it. It's a great natural antibiotic, so I usually just swallow. Be careful if you swallow, it can give some people heartburn, but if you take a few antacids that will subside.

Repeat as necessary, usually every half hour to an hour. If it's giving you heartburn or you begin to have an upset stomach, wait longer between uses. Like all things, too much can lead to an upset tummy.

Using this method, I was even able to sleep at night, I only got up once to take a dose of the garlic. It got me through Christmas with my family and let me keep my sanity until my dentist could see me.

So if you ever find yourself with a toothache and unable to see a dentist right away, garlic will definitely help. Just remember, this is only to help you until you can see a dentist, it's not a replacement for dental care.