PLACE hard-boiled eggs in a baby’s room. She or he will have an easier time teething.
That’s when the baby puts fingers into the mouth to ease the pain of teeth breaking through the gums.
It happens between six to 24 months after birth. The baby will be irritable as the gums become tender and swollen. Place a hardboiled egg inside the baby’s room – and the pain will go away.
To take the ache away from a problem tooth put an onion on the ear on the side of the toothache. Well, that’s what they did in the Middle Ages anyway.
Or try vanilla. Put a pure extract directly on the tooth and the toothache goes away.
Chew on your fingernails on a Friday. You will be rid of a toothache for all of one week. When the pain persists, try it again on another Friday.
How about spitting in a frog’s mouth – it is great toothache relief. Or put a frog on the cheek, on the side of the aching tooth. The pain goes away.
That is if you can put your hands on a frog in the first place.
Ah, but there’s nothing better than good old spider juice as a toothache remedy. Mix with eggshells and oil then boil altogether until the liquid is just a third of the original volume. Apply on the aching tooth, and the pain will be gone.
But then again, where in the world should one get spider juice.
Or for that matter donkey’s milk. Not in these islands, we are sure of it. But in ancient Greece, donkey’s milk is used as a mouthwash. It’s guaranteed to make for healthy teeth and gums.
In ancient times people actually believed that the tooth worm caused toothache, tooth decay and gum disease.
The belief was that the small worms inside the tooth are eating it away.
The Babylonian “The Legend of the Worm” tells how “the tooth worm drinks the blood and eats the roots of the teeth” – causing dental cavities and gum ailments.
“(And) the marsh had created the worm – The worm went, weeping, before Shamash, his tears flowing before Ea: ‘What wilt thou give for my food? What wilt thou give me for my sucking?’ Lift me up and among the teeth and the gums cause me to dwell! The blood of the tooth I will suck, and of the gum I will gnaw its roots!”
We get this information from Wikipedia which relates how science showed that when removed intact, the tooth pulp appears like a worm.
The worm tale probably has its roots on the structure of a dissected molar that appears to be worms, as shown in a study conducted at the University of Maryland Baltimore in 2009.
Before science, people continued to believe the tooth worm story. In the Middle Ages the aching tooth was smeared with honey and people, ready with tweezers, waited to pluck the tooth worms when they appeared.
Of course the tooth worms never did appear.
Which goes to the point of this little story. All of the above are beliefs best left for April Fool’s Day, April 1.
And the biggest April Fool’s joke is, If your gums are bleeding or when you have a toothache, forget about a visit to the dental clinic. The problem will take care of itself.
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Dr. Joseph D. Lim is the former Associate Dean of the UE College of Dentistry, former Dean of the College of Dentistry, National University, past president and honorary fellow of the Asian Oral Implant Academy, and honorary fellow of the Japan College of Oral Implantologists. Honorary Life Member of Thai Association of Dental Implantology. For questions on dental health, e-mail jdlim2008@gmail.com or text 0917-8591515./PN
