Diseases of the Mouth, Gums and Teeth

Western Tradition

To Keep the Teeth Healthy

1. In many cultures, the twigs of certain trees have been used to “pick” the teeth, often called Chew Sticks, or something similar. Neem, Olive, Walnut, Oak and Salvadora persica (Miswak or Arak), widely used in the Middle East and Africa, and which has been acknowledged by WHO for its efficacy.
2. “Honey and vinegar, cooked and used to rinse the mouth a few days each month, preserve the teeth in their Health”. (Rhazes)

Tooth Powders to Clean the Teeth

1. Take Bread Crumb and Pumice Stone, equal parts, burn together and use to brush the teeth. This is said to make the teeth extremely white. (The Secrets of Alexis, 1615)
2. Rub the Teeth with Vinegar of Quince. It makes the Teeth white, strengthens the Gums and sweetens the Breath. (Physical Rarities, Harvey, 1656)
3. Green branches of Broom burnt, Burnt Alum, powder and mix with water to rub the teeth. (Physical Rarities, Harvey, 1656)
4. Yellow or Black Teeth:
    Rye meal
    Salt
    Honey                                equal parts
Mix and rub the teeth with them twice daily, washing with water afterwards.
5. Pumice, Saltpeter, Myrrh (equal parts)
6. To make the Teeth white, rub the teeth with burnt Deer horn or burnt Goat horn. (Syrian “Book of Medicine“, trans. by Wallis Budge, 1913)
  This is said to make the teeth very white and prevent them from rotting.
7. To Whiten the Teeth
Burn Goat horns, make a powder and rub the teeth with it. It whitens and strengthens the gums. (Alexis)
8. “To rub the Teeth and Gums every morning, and after meat too, if you please, with Salt, is the best way under the Sun to preserve
the teeth sound and clean from rotting and aching” (Culpeper)
9. Cuttlefish bone
    Ginger
    Orris,                                equal parts
Used as a tooth powder, it cleanses and whitens the teeth, sweetens the breath and prevents blackness of the teeth. (Syrian “Book of Medicine“, trans. by Wallis Budge, 1913)
10. A Typical more modern Tooth Powder:
    Precipitated Chalk          4 oz.
    Cuttlebone powder        2 oz.
    Orris root                           1 oz.
    Borax                                 half oz.
    Oil of Cloves                     5 drops
    Oil of Wintergreen          2 fluid drams  
Form a powder of the dry ingredients then mix in the oils. If a paste is desired, equal amounts of Honey, Glycerin and Gum Arabic mucilage can be added to form the desired consistency.

Tooth Powder to Whiten the Teeth (Wirtzung)

To Strengthen the Teeth and Gums

1. Vervain: chew the herb or root, or else boil in wine and vinegar and gargle
2. Cinquefoil root boiled in wine or vinegar and used as a mouthwash.
3. Hyssop boiled in wine and used as a mouthwash.
4. DENTRIFICE TO STRENGTHEN THE GUMS
    Burned deer horn          1 part
    Salt                                   1 part
    Yellow Myrobalan          1 part
    Pomegranate flower     ½ part
Powder and use to brush teeth and gums.

Loose Teeth and Spongy Gums

1. Wash the teeth and gums with Rose water every day to fasten the gums.
2. Infusion of Sorrel root in Vinegar held in the mouth.
3. Raisins infused in Wine, used as a gargle.
4. Pound Raisins, boil in Olive oil and rub the gums with it while warm; or hold it in the mouth. (Syrian ‘Book of Medicine‘, Budge, 1913)
5. Boil Vervain roots in wine, wash the Teeth with it and it will make them fast. (Physical Rarities, Harvey, 1656)
6. Oil of Myrrh is very good to fasten the Teeth and preserve the Gums. It is prepared by hard boiling an Egg, removing the Yolk and replacing with Myrrh. Tie the Egg together with thread and leave in a cool place. The Myrrh will dissolve into an Oil (Hartman, 1682)
7. Salted Water of Pickled Olives held in the mouth.
8. Infusion of Willow Bark in Vinegar.
9. Alum mixed with Myrrh, applied to the gums.
10. Calamint infused in Vinegar as a gargle.
11. Apply powder Saltpeter to the gums.
12. Calamint, Pyrethrum, Pepper, and Galbanum mixed with Vinegar and applied to the gums. This also relieves Cold Toothache.

Powder to Strengthen the Teeth (Galen)

Bad Breath

1. Chewing Mastic can relieve bad breath
2. Myrtle leaf, Lentisk leaf (equal parts), half quantity of Galls; beat them, sprinkle with wine, and chewed (Pliny)
3. Ivy berries, Cassia, Myrrh (equal parts); mix with wine and chew or use as a mouthwash. (Pliny)
4. Aromaticum Rosatum

Toothache

“You must know that toothaches are mostly caused by wind. In order to ease the pain, hold warmed sesame oil or warmed ghee in your mouth; or take one of those drugs that calm down wind, cook it, and hold it in the mouth”. (Rhazes)

1. a drop or 2 of Clove Oil is a time proven remedy. A whole Clove can also be placed over the affected gum.
2. A Sichuan Pepper is applied topically over the pain in Sichuan, China.
3. Pellitory root, powder, make balls, and apply between the teeth and the gums, spitting the saliva out as it comes. (Physical Rarities, Harvey, 1656)
4. Hyssop boiled in vinegar and held in the mouth eases Toothache coming from Heat. (Physical Rarities, Harvey, 1656)
5. Distilled Water of Motherwort held in the mouth will relieve Toothache. Water of Vervain or Hyssop will do the same. (Physical Rarities, Harvey, 1656)
6. Ivy berries boiled in vinegar and held in the mouth as hot as can be tolerated, then repeated 3 or 4 times will ease the pain. (Physical Rarities, Harvey, 1656)
7. Root of Henbane chewed with vinegar, or Plantain juice mixed with vinegar (Pliny)
8. Hyssop boiled in vinegar and held in the mouth eases Toothache coming from Heat. (Physical Rarities, Harvey, 1656)
9. Henbane root boiled in vinegar and held in the mouth eases Toothache. (Physical Rarities, Harvey, 1656)
10. Juice of Scarlet Pimpernel is sniffed into the opposite nostril.
11. Boil shavings of Deer horn in water and hold the decoction in the mouth.
12. Boil Ivy berries and the scrapings of Deer Horn in white wine, make a plaster and apply to the cheek and hold the decoction in the mouth. (Physical Rarities, Harvey, 1656)
13. “For an aching molar apply camphor water around its base—this is marvelous!’. (Rhazes)
14. For Toothache from decayed teeth: “Myrrh is pulverized and sprinkled on their bases both inside
and outside. It has been proved that it relieves pain speedily”. (The Medical Formulary of Al-Kindi)
15. For Toothache from caries, put a piece of Asafetida or Alum into the hole.
16. Put Borage juice in the ear the same side as the toothache and lye on the opposite side so the juice stays in. (Natura exenterata, Philatros, 1655)
17. Henbane seed, Amber (equal parts), burn and let the fumes go to the sore tooth through a funnel.
18. a small piece of Opium was applied to an open tooth or the gum, or else Tincture of Opium was used.
19. Boil Pepper, Pyrethrum and Pomegranate peel in vinegar, put in a little bag and lay it warm to the place.
20. Henbane seed, Celery seed, Poppy seed (equal parts), make small pellets and with Brandy apply to the aching tooth “and the pain will ease straight”. (Physical Rarities, Harvey, 1656)
21. Make small pills of equal parts of Borax and Pepper and hold on the aching tooth (Ayurveda)
21. Blue Vitriol, burnt Alum, mix and apply. (Ayurveda)
22. “A little gunpowder tied up in a rag, and held so in the mouth, that it may touch the aching tooth, instantly eases the pain of the tooth”. (Culpeper)
23. Long Pepper
    White Pepper
    Cubeb
    Staphysacre
    Mulberry root bark
    Mandrake root-bark
    Capers root-bark
    Pellitory
    Henbane                        2 drams ea.
Bruise them and boil in 15 ounces of red wine down to half. Use to wash the aching tooth. (Secrets of Alexis)

Powder for Toothache (Galen)
Toothache Powder 7 (So snum bdun pa) (Tibetan)
Przewalskia 11 (Thang phrom bcu gchig) (Tibetan)

Tooth Cavities and Decay

1. Rinses of salt water after each meal cleanse food that will aggravate decay and cause pain.
2. Mastic has long been used in the West to fill cavities. It is anti-bacterial and forms a physical barrier to protect the tooth.
“Take Mastic and chew it in your mouth, til it be as soft as wax, then put it into the hollow tooth … and it will certainly take away the pain thereof”. (Hartman, 1682)
3. “I have seen many in this Climate tormented with the Toothache, by reason of rotten and hollow Teeth. I was wont to fill the hollow teeth with Turpentine … which succeeded very well and happily”. (Salmon)
4. Place Asafetida in the hole.
5. Garlic, Clove or Sichuan Pepper, any one can be applied topically to the hole or gum under the tooth.
6. Take a head of Garlic peeled and crushed and apply half to each of the soles of the feet. This is most effective when the Toothache comes of a cold cause.
7. “Take white Hellebore, infuse it in white Vine Vinegar, over a Chafing-dish of Coals; then take half a spoonful of it, and hold and gargle it in that side of your Mouth where the Pain is, and it will give you present Ease”. (Hartman, 1682)
8. Toad venom can be put into a hollow tooth
9. ‘Take an ordinary earthworm, and dry it into a powder, take of that powder, and put it into the Tooth when you go to bed, and put wax upon the Tooth to keep it in, and by morning the corrupt part of the tooth will waste away, and the good will remain.’ (Natura exenterata, Philatros, 1655)
10. Another of Worms: Boil worms in oil, then beat together. Put some of this Oil of Worms into the ear on the same saide as the Toothache “and it shall heal you”. (Alexis)

Powder for Bad Breath from Rotting Teeth 

To Remove a Tooth

1. Steep Mulberry root bark in Vinegar for 3 days, then dry in the sun, powder and “rub the teeth therewith, and they will fall out”. (Physical Rarities, Harvey, 1656)
2. Burn Worms to ashes, then put some of the ashes into a hollow and painful Tooth and cover with Wax. The tooth is said to easily fall out without pain. (Secrets of Alexis)|
3. “Pellitory, Mulberry barks and Capers, are pounded thoroughly, then cooked in vinegar, uproot healthy teeth—make an incision (into the gums) all around the molar, besmear it with this mixture, and wait for the Tooth to fall out”. (from Simun, out of Rhazes)
4. Arsenic, mixed with Vinegar can be used as above too.

Inflammation of the Gums

1. Beat Plantain leaf and root, apply to the gum befiore bed and in the morning it will be better.
2. Decoction of Hyssop as a Mouthwash for putrid or sore gums

Receding Gums

1. Myrrh dissolved in Wine with Olive oil added; wash the gums with it twice daily. Or apply Myrrh oil.
2. Apply distilled water of Wild Mints

Rotten and Sponginess of the Gums

1. Vinegar of Squill
2. Wash the Gums with Water of Sage.

Abscesses of the Gums, Gum Boils

Bleed the Head Vein, or under the Tongue
Apply cups to the Shoulders or back of the Neck
Purge the head with Pil. Cochia etc.

1. Plantain seed (Pliny)
2. Swollen, painful gums, beat Rue with Honey and Salt and apply.
3. Gum abscess, wash the mouth often with Honey of Roses (3 parts), Vinegar (1 part)
4. Rinse the mouth often with water that has Alum, Salt or Myrrh in it.
5. Rub Egyptian Ungent on (don’t swallow any)
6. To heal and dry, Rose, Cypress nuts, Galls, burnt Alum (equal parts), boil in Vinegar and Water, strain, add Honey and use as a mouth wash.

Sores, Ulcers, Boils of the Mouth

1. Mouth Ulcers or Gums Boils, apply powder of Myrrh, Gall and Frankincense bark (or Gum) mixed with Honey (Avicenna)
2. Running and Foul Ulcer of the Lips: washed Aloes 0.5 oz., Salt prepared 2 drams, Honey 4 oz. Mix and apply.
3. Inflamed mouth, Tabasheer, Starch, Saffron, Chebula, Alum, Aloes, Rhubarb (powder, mix with Honey water and gargle). (Syrian “Book of Medicine“, trans. by Wallis Budge, 1913)
4. Bull’s tongue is burnt to powder and applied topically. It has been ‘well tried’. (Syrian “Book of Medicine“, trans. by Wallis Budge, 1913)