Remedies: Clove Oil for Tooth Pain

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times What alternative remedies belong in your home medicine cabinet?

More than a third of American adults use some form of complementary or alternative medicine, according to a government report. Natural remedies have an obvious appeal, but how do you know which ones to choose and whether the claims are backed by science? In this occasional series, Anahad O’Connor, the New York Times “Really?” columnist, explores the claims and the science behind alternative remedies that you may want to consider for your family medicine cabinet.

The Remedy: Clove oil.

The Claim: It relieves toothaches.

The Science: What can you do in a pinch when you have a toothache?

Most people reach for age-old medicine-cabinet staples like Anbesol and Orajel, which contain benzocaine, an anesthetic, as their active ingredient. Benzocaine, like many other anesthetics, can cause allergic reactions and other side effects that some people find unpalatable.

But one natural alternative is clove oil, an essential oil from the clove plant, native to India and Indonesia and also known by the scientific but somewhat pleasant-sounding name Eugenia aromaticum. The essential oil has been shown in studies to have both analgesic and antibacterial properties, which can be particularly helpful in the case of a toothache instigated by bacteria.

Clove oil is not for everyone. It has a strong and sometimes unpleasant taste, and if large quantities are accidentally ingested, it too can have side effects. But it was widely used in dentistry before the advent of more commercial anesthetics, and research shows it works thanks to its active ingredient, eugenol, the same compound responsible for the plant’s aroma.

In a study published in The Journal of Dentistry in 2006, for example, a team of dentists recruited 73 adult volunteers and randomly split them into groups that had one of four substances applied to the gums just above the maxillary canine teeth: a clove gel, benzocaine, a placebo resembling the clove gel, or a placebo resembling benzocaine. Then, after five minutes, they compared what happened when the subjects received two needle sticks in those areas. Not surprisingly, the placebos failed to numb the tissue against the pain, but the clove and benzocaine applications numbed the tissue equally well.

“No significant difference was observed between clove and benzocaine regarding pain scores,” the scientists concluded.

The Risks: Clove oil can be found in most health food stores for a few dollars a bottle. To use it, apply a very small amount to a cotton swab or piece of tissue and apply gently to the affected area. Although considered safe when used correctly in small amounts, it can cause liver and respiratory problems when ingested in large quantities.

Comments are no longer being accepted.

This is an age old practice used in india and we were advised to chew on cloves for tooth aches – interesting to see that it is as effective as benzocaine.

Oil of cloves is exactly what the evil Dr. Szell (Laurence Olivier) used in Marathon Man. It worked on Dustin Hoffman, why not on the general public? The alternative, both in film and in reality, is less than pleasant.

Better idea: Go to the dentist.

After all it seems that there was some truth in what our grandmothers used to teach us.
It looks like retro fashion also entered the medical arena.
//www.lifestyle-after50.com/alternative-medicine.html

This is ridiculous advice. This is only effective for a carious exposure—-big cavitiy to the nerve. It will not relieve a seriously neglected tooth with an infection in the bone.
Eugenol (clove oil) is only good for the drive to the dentist’s office and will do nothing to correct the problem.

“Oil of cloves is exactly what the evil Dr. Szell (Laurence Olivier) used in Marathon Man. It worked on Dustin Hoffman, why not on the general public? The alternative, both in film and in reality, is less than pleasant.”
——————————————
in reality, when the evil Dr. Szell macerated his nerve with the dremel, there is no further pain. It was good drama but lacking in fact. (The procedure is called a pulpotomy and is done routinely to relieve pain)

David Chowes, New York City February 17, 2011 · 4:21 pm

WELL, Even if this ‘treatment’ has not been scientificlly validated, I’ll bet that the ‘placebo effect’ kicks in — so why not?

Obviously if you need a root canal, clove oil won’t be the entire answer.
But when my daughter was teething, something she started at 3 months, we used cajeput oil and it worked very well. There’s a turpentine-like smell but it gets the job done naturally without all that Anbesol chemical stuff.

Clove oil saved my life (!) when I had a dry socket after getting my wisdom teeth removed. Days of excruciating pain and then sweet relief. Worth its weight in gold.

I had dry socket (blood clot comes out when healing from a removed wisdom tooth) and the pain was THE WORST I’ve ever felt.

Only thing that helped? Clove oil. Of course, I’m a redhead, so take that for what you will, since we’re “supposed to have lower pain thresholds, etc.”

Best thing i have found is to take a some hard liquor and soak the tooth in it. The liquor may be spit out after soaking. This works.

Eugenol (clove oil) and ethanol (the stuff that gets you plastered) are both effective local anaesthetics, so both are effective for temporary relief for toothaches. The only definitive treatment, though, is to consult your dentist PDQ.

Quite amazing how oil can be used to treat so many problems. Here in Israel, Olive oil is one of the key ingredients in our famous “Mediterranean Diet”. I try to consume a lot of it, and now I’m glad I know I can use it to sooth my teeth.

I know that there are medical used to the following oils:
Coconut oil, Olive oil, jojoba oil, flaxseed oil, and now -clove oil! I always try to look into the advantages of using Olive oil to treat certain conditions.
Olive oil is commonly used on the scalp as well, to aid in hair re-growth.

“The healthy hair growth diet is high on the list of remedies. Like the search for the Holy Grail, the one magic ingredient that will produce a lion’s mane overnight is the one that seems to elude everyone looking for a house hold hair growth remedy. What most of the solutions seem to recommend though, with very little disagreement, is that olive oil is in included.” This is part of a published article, mentioning yet another great implementation of Olive oil as a remedy. //ezinearticles.com/?Household-Hair-Growth-Remedies&id=5897237

It’s really great to see the research prove how these oils can help us, as the scientific claims are proven, and thus they transform this “granny says” method into a mainstream miracle. More people will now see the advantages of oil.

Daniel B.

I would be scared to soak my tooth in ethanol. Isn’t alcohol correlated with throat and other cancers in the mouth?

Eugenol is also found in Holy Basil and Tulsi leaf extract.
Eugenol is considered to have vasoprotective properties due to affects on platelet activity, adhesion and build-up.

Also just a quick mention about the vasoprotective benefit of olive oil. Research studies indicates “extra virgin olive oil” provides greater anti-inflammatory benefit than olive oil.
The “extra virgin olive oil” also helps stabilize blood sugar.

//www.Into-The-Heart.com

Anahad,

It is somewhat disingenuous to repeat the ‘More than a third of American adults use some form of complementary or alternative medicine’ line without explanation — making it sound like using these often strange, untested, unreliable, and sometimes downright weird and/or dangerous, remedies is almost the norm.

In fact, the vast majority of the purported CAM users are older, well-educated, middle-aged, men and women (you could read for this, The Boomers) trying to handle the effects of aging: back and joint pain. They mostly use the popular, well-advertised but questionably effective remedies in hopes of relief: fish oil/omega 3/DHA, glucosamine, echinacea (for colds), flaxseed oil or pills, and ginseng. In addition, they use various the relaxation techniques most often recommended as part of any treatment plan for chronic pain: Deep breathing exercises, Meditation, Massage, Yoga. Back pain sufferers often try: Chiropractic or osteopathic manipulation.

The above paragraph describes over 90% of the adult CAM use in the United States. Note that CAM, as defined by the National Institutes of Health, excludes vitamin and mineral supplementation.

Most people, when they get sick, see their doctors. People with toothaches see their dentists.

Ah, oil. Soothing oleagenous remedies have cured my toothache, stabilized my blood sugar, and lined my alimentium. They restoreth my hair!

My digestion flows like a wide river, constipation is a distant memory, and I look upon all humanity with benign, oil-induced serenity.

If it’s good enough for Red Gauntlet, it’s good enough for me.

PS Go see the Doctor. His considered opinion may save you Further, un-necessary pain and frustration.

I have heard of using clove oil for tooth pain before. It is great that more research is being done on contemporary and alternative medicine (CAM). If you want to find more evidence behind clove oil or any other CAM, naturalstandard.com does an exhaustive search on available information and rates the product or therapy based on scientific evidence.

Re #15: “…making it sound like using these often strange, untested, unreliable, and sometimes downright weird and/or dangerous, remedies is almost the norm.”

So where do you draw the line between the strange, untested, etc and the treatments that work even though they may not be the products of pharmecutical labs or operating rooms? Case in point: I treat my occasional back pains with the CAM approach of exercise, rather than a “mainstream” surgical procedure. But the catch here is that there’s plenty of mainstream scientific studies showing that the exercise approach yields better results than surgery.

Likewise with clove oil: it does work to relieve pain, for a tooth until one can get to the dentist (few of whom welcome patients at 1 AM), or for the occasional canker sore or such. And if it works as well as the pharmecutical product and costs less, that seems like a win to me.

My dentist is the person who recommended that I try clove oil; obviously, some of us have the sense to move up the medical food chain if the OTC stuff doesn’t work.

May we, for a moment, consider a more practical everyday scenario (instead of the very dismissive “get thee to a dentistry”)? Clove oil can be quite a simple solution for as minor an ailment as gum irritation due to eating something sharp and crunchy or a tongue burned by too hot soup. Even a whole clove tucked in the mouth for a few minutes offers relief without calling in the cavalry. It is not a substitute for regular care, but neither is it untested – ask your dentist how many products in his/her professional aresnal contain clove oil…

i worked in a pharmacy for many years,who remembers JIFFY OR RED CROSS toothache KITS,in the kit which sold for under $1,you got a little box of tiny cotton balls,big enough to fit in a dental hole, a tweezer and a bottle of eugenol solution.you dipped the cotton in the solution and stuffed the hole and it laster quite a while.but tasted awful and very bitter,but it only worked on direct contact with the nerve.
this was the good old days
p.s. i still use LAVORIS,the red mouthwash which has clove oil in its formula and tastes like cinnamon,but its still one of the OLD items that WORKS

Reply to James:

Exercise for occasional back pain is the first choice of mainstream medicine for certain conditions and has been for centuries

Benzocaine preparations are standardized and you know what you are getting and come in neat little ‘baby teething gel’ tubes that last in your medicine cabinet long after baby has grown up and gone off to college.

‘Clove oil’ is a you-get-you-know-not-what in the bottle, of uncertain strength with uncertain fillers and has not been tested long-term for those rare for devastating side effects that only turn up from following thousands and thousands of cases. Both cost about the same retai, with generic baby teething gel coming in a bit lower.

But hey, people, it’s your mouth. Please feel free to take your chances with natural but not-really-tested (or regulated) products.

I had heard this before, so I was fascinated when I had a root canal a couple of years ago and the packing the endodontist used to fill in my root cavities clearly had clove in it. My mouth tasted like Christmas for 2 days after!

following the appearance of a large blister on my gum over my front teeth and my face swelling up on one side like a hamster after food along with headache and temperature I went to the doctor who prescribed antiobiotics.
at home I googled to have a look at the possible adverse effects.no i don’t want to make a bad situation worse.
So checked around on the internet and found a site where
there were 400 happy customers who had tried the following
many after having tried a number of antibiotic preparations without success.
Take a piece of cotton wool add a mix of bicarbonate of soda and seasalt. Place on the affected area and leave for up to 4 hours.
Well for me it was 1 1/2 hours the blister burst the swollen
face took on its normal shape and the headache went and the temperature returned to normal.
What a relief. Later went to the dentist who wanted to do all manner of drilling and filling.
I decided against any dental work and seven months later
not a sign of pain. All gone. for a few cents.
Way ahead of oil of clove.