Any responsible advice related to easing the pain of toothache must begin with encouraging you to schedule an appointment with a dentist. Home remedies will help you in easing the pain, but only a dentist can permanently heal the tooth and remove the pain.

Once you have made an appointment, steps can be taken to ease the pain until your appointment date.

In easing the pain of a toothache, you are basically alleviating the pressure being brought to bear on the nerve of the tooth. An over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medication, such as Ibuprofen, may be taken to reduce inflamation and pain.

Every person has a varying pain threshold, you may use one or a combination of the following steps to obtain additional relief from the pain.

Please keep in mind, in the event of a broken tooth, an exposed root conduit or tooth damage sustained from a physical trauma, do not attempt self treatment, these situations require emergency professional dental intervention.

The simplest attempt at easing the pain is by rinsing your mouth with salt water. Dissolve 2 tablespoons of salt in 8 ounces of lukewarm water. Rinse, holding the water solution over the affected area. Do so at least 3 times; holding the water over the area for at least 30 seconds each time. For milder toothaches this action alone is enough to notice a significant reduction in discomfort.

For stronger toothaches follow the same rinsing procedure substituting the salt water solution for either original strength Listerine or straight grain alcohol, vodka or gin. Never use rubbing alcohol for this procedure.

Whether you use the salt water or the alcohol to rinse your mouth, even if it did not alleviate the pain, it did aid in infection control. If the rinse did not alleviate the pain, proceed to step 2.

Never place ice directly on an afflicted tooth. For many people the sudden change in temperature can actually aggravate the pain; however, applying an ice pack to the exterior of the face, immediately over the area of the toothache can often times achieve a reduction in swelling and minimize the pain.

Place a dry wash cloth, handkerchief or paper towel over the skin of your face and then place the ice pack over it for 15 minutes.

Please keep in mind never to substitute heat for cold in this method, as heat will increase circulation to the afflicted area, increasing blood flow, with it elevating the pressure and thus, the pain.http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/health_advice/facts/toothache.htm

When rinsing and cold packs fail try applying a view drops of clove oil to a cotton swab. Rub it on the afflicted tooth and the surrounding gum tissue. Then, add a few more drops of clove oil to a cotton ball and gently bite down over it with the tooth in question. Hold it there for 3 minutes.

You will feel a slight burning sensation, but clove oil does deaden the nerve endings, so it will ease the pain.

If the idea of the taste or sensation caused by clove oil is not agreeable to you it may be substituted by over-the-counter tooth drops, such as Ambasol.