I recently had some dental work done. It included the extraction of a wisdom tooth and a “root canal gone bad” tooth that had fallen apart. I haven’t been to the dentist in a while but I searched until I found one that approaches things from a holistic point of view. I found a fabulous dentist – only an hour from my house 🙂 They do wonderful things like muscle testing for the appropriate tooth filling or procedure that is right for you. They also provide a detox liquid prior to the procedure.
I survived the 3 hour appointment by taking my essential oils with me. When I was sitting in the chair – Dr. Mahn said “I can always tell the serious aromatherapy people – they always smell like Thieves.”
I have had some very bad experiences at the dentist starting way back to a little girl (very deep seated issues…) So, the oils I used were the Stress Away and Valor roll-ons – just to get me in the chair. I was applying them throughout the procedure(s) too. After all was said and done, they offered me the standard prescriptions of pain-killers and anti-biotics (just as SOP) but I used these oils: Idaho Balsam Fir for post surgical pain management, PanAway to reduce the swelling and bruising, Wintergreen for the deep bone pain, Thieves for the management of infection and pain and Ocotea to also help with the possible infection. I topically applied Clove to the gum-line and used the rest externally on my jaw-line, around the surgical site. I had very minimal swelling, no bruising and only some throbbing in between applications. The deep nerve pain was managed by Peppermint oil and I took InnerDefense (a capsule blend of essential oils) to help with the infection.
The wisdom tooth area healed in about 3 days and the other site was nice and healthy pink throughout the healing. After 10 days, I returned to the dentist so they could remove the stitches and they were amazed at the healing that had already taken place. They also commented on the lack of swelling and bruising.
It has been about 2 weeks since the procedure and only after running in the yard with the dogs do I feel the throbbing pain. I grab my peppermint and clove and in a matter of seconds, no more pain.
Essential Oils are made from plants of the Earth and if we search, we can find these naturally derived substances to help us with our issues in life. Even in times of pain – you can find excellent sources of relief. If you are considering using essential oils for your own health, be sure they are of the highest quality and marked “therapeutic-grade” otherwise, you may be getting a bottle of perfume oil.