Having a toothache is anything but fun and it is even worse when you have to face it at night, right before you plan to go to bed. A toothache during the day is disruptive as it is when you are working or doing chores around your home. However, the last thing you want is your toothache to keep you awake at night. How do you handle a toothache at night and what is the best remedy for it?
While you may not be able to completely remove the tooth pain entirely, there are several things you can do to help minimize the pain so you can sleep at night. Let’s go over ways to help relieve a toothache at night so you can get the rest you need.
Take An OTC Pain Medication
You can take acetaminophen which is Tylenol or ibuprofen which is Motrin or Advil to help dull the pain. You want to make sure that you take the nighttime version of the medicine because the last thing you want to do is to take the daytime version of OTC pain medications which will keep you awake regardless. You can also use a gel with benzocaine as well to treat the tooth that is causing the pain directly. If a child has tooth pain, always give the child gels for children as children under two cannot use products with benzocaine.
Use Mouthwash To Rinse Your Mouth
Before going to bed, you can rinse with mouthwash as it contains alcohol to numb your tooth. You should swish it around for about one minute and make sure that you include the tooth that is causing you the pain you are experiencing. That will bring you some relief before going to bed.
Avoid Eating Certain Foods At Night
You want to avoid eating foods that are hard, cold, or acidic before going to bed because those foods will aggravate your teeth even further. If the tooth pain is from a cavity, then you will want to most definitely avoid these foods, or else it will increase the pain.
Prop Your Head Up
If you prop your head up with a pillow and keep it elevated, that will reduce blood pooling in your head. If blood pools in your head, then that will worsen your tooth pain. Therefore, that will prevent you from getting a good night’s rest. You can use two pillows to keep your head elevated over the rest of your body, or put a book underneath a pillow to give it the same effect.
Place An Ice Pack On Your Face Where The Tooth Is
Wrap an ice pack in a cloth and place it on your face where the painful tooth. That will help dull the pain and the cold feeling will also help make you tired so you can fall asleep. If you wake up in the night and the ice pack is no longer cold, you will want to put the ice pack back into the freezer and if you have another, you can rinse and repeat. If not, you can use another remedy.
Rinse With Hydrogen Peroxide
Use one part water and one part hydrogen peroxide to swish around your mouth and ensure that you cover the area of your pained tooth. That will help to dull the pain, and you can do it a few times a day which can help lower the intensity of the tooth pain at night.
Try Natural Remedies
Before you use essential oils for remedies, you will want to make sure you can use them and that you do not have an allergy to them. However, you can use clove oil and put some of it on your tooth so it helps to dull the pain. Mango bark, guava leaves, sunflower leaves, and sweet potato leaves can help.
However, you want to make sure you see your dentist so you can get to the bottom of what is causing your tooth pain. You cannot go through it night after night either. You could have a serious issue causing it which you will want to address right away.
