Clove oil provides real but temporary relief from a toothache. Eugenol, the compound that makes up most of clove essential oil, numbs the tissue it touches within minutes. What clove oil does not do is treat the cavity, crack, or infection generating the pain, which carries on underneath the numbness. Below we cover how well [...]

The signs of gum disease are bleeding gums, red or swollen gums, persistent bad breath, gums pulling away from the teeth, and teeth that feel loose or have shifted. The difficulty is that gum disease rarely hurts until it is well advanced, so most people never notice the early stage at all. That explains why the [...]

Treatment for gum disease depends entirely on how far it has progressed. Early gingivitis clears up with professional cleanings and better daily care at home. Established periodontitis needs scaling and root planing to reach below the gumline, sometimes combined with antimicrobial therapy or laser treatment. Advanced cases may need surgery to reduce pockets or rebuild [...]

The home remedies that actually ease a toothache are a warm saltwater rinse, a cold compress on the outside of the cheek, and a small amount of diluted clove oil. Those three have a real mechanism behind them. Most of the other remedies circulating online do nothing, and a few of them measurably damage your teeth. [...]

You stop a toothache for good by treating what is causing it, and you control the pain in the meantime with a cold compress, a saltwater rinse, and an over-the-counter pain reliever. Those measures buy time. They do not repair the decay, infection, or crack producing the pain. Go straight to emergency care rather than reading [...]

The home remedies that actually help a toothache are a warm saltwater rinse, a cold compress held against the outside of your cheek, a properly diluted hydrogen peroxide rinse, diluted clove oil applied to the tooth, and an over-the-counter pain reliever taken as the label directs. Each one buys you comfort for a few hours. [...]

For a toothache, rinse with warm salt water, hold a cold compress against the outside of your cheek, take an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory pain reliever exactly as the label directs, and call a dentist. Those steps quiet the pain. They do not fix what is causing it, and tooth pain almost never resolves on its own. [...]

Gum disease is a bacterial infection of the gum tissue and the bone holding your teeth in place, and it looks different at every stage. Healthy gums are firm, pale pink, and do not bleed. Early gum disease shows up as red, puffy gums that bleed when you brush or floss. Advanced gum disease shows [...]

A dental crown is a custom-made, tooth-shaped cap that fits over the entire visible portion of a damaged or weakened tooth above the gumline, restoring its strength, shape, and function. We recommend one when a tooth has lost too much of its own structure to hold a smaller repair safely. Below we answer the questions [...]

You can reverse early gum disease at home, but you cannot cure advanced gum disease without a dentist. Early-stage gum disease, called gingivitis, responds to daily removal of the bacterial film on your teeth. Once that film hardens into tartar below the gumline and the bone around your teeth starts to shrink, no rinse, oil, [...]