REMEDY FOR TOOTHACHE? EXTRACTION

Among the thousands stories of Alchemy, there is one in which the alchemist would produce a bird from the special chemical fire; and that bird was destined to answer one, and only one question of the alchemist. Evidently the alchemist was supposed to ask the secret of converting iron into gold. But it so happened that during the mantra of igniting the special fire, and long hymns of abracadabra and mumbo-jumbo rituals he suddenly got a severe toothache, which put him beside himself. As the bird did appear from the burning ambers, and hopped and perched on the low wall of his compound, the alchemist forgot everything and asked the bird: “Treatment for toothache?” “Extraction”, the bird replied, and making a dive it soared in the sky, and anon was visible no more.

So, the alchemist could not get the secret of making gold, but got a golden rule: ‘In toothache, get your tooth extracted, the sooner the better; to save yourself from unnecessary suffering.’

I’ve treated countless patients for toothache, and with such a sizable success, that I could boast to my patients that had they not been treated homeopathically, their jaws would have become toothless during all those years.  Some 80{2199fd5a08fd4327006de97eb55639ae209b35f77d7fcf7e4d124ba1edc48180} of my carious and shaky teeth patients were handled by two medicines: viz. Merc. Sol. and Plantago Maj.  Merc.Sol. for the pathology of the gums and the root of the teeth; and Plantago for the neuralgia or neuralgic symptoms, for which sometimes I preferred to use Chamomilla or coffia. I’ve helped countless cases with this tactic.

But what happened to me in this month (June, 2010), gave me a rude shock. I had a perfect dentine. For full 65 years no dentist ever touched my teeth or pried into my mouth. I never had toothache all these years. In the first week of June a severe pain descended on me, one afternoon. I was awakened by this pain from my siesta. I could not make whether it was toothache or trigeminal neuralgia, or, what the homeopaths call, prosopalgia. Pain was that severe! From that time on, a story of pain and suffering started. I had no pain during working hours. I could attend my clinic and eat and drink without any discomfort.  The pain would at once start whenever I fall asleep.  There was no definite remedy, symptoms were so scarce. Belladonna seemed to help me. But it was not definite, as by getting up and walking about automatically brought relief. By and by symptoms went on worsening. When no remedy worked I had to resort to painkillers. From Ansaid to Dicloran intramuscular, proved as useless as harmless.

Three symptoms stood out prominent as uncommon, rare and peculiar. No.1, pain beginning on falling asleep; No.2, pain totally disappearing on drinking icy cold water, or holding this water around the ailing tooth. No.3, pain extending to ear so much that it was indistinguishable whether it was in the ear or the in the tooth.  This tripod of Hering brought out Chelidonium and Magnesia Carb. Both of them did nothing. Then I added the rubrics ‘neuralgic’ and ‘piercing’ pains. Now Cham., Bell., Puls., and Merc. Sol. came out as indicated. But these also did nothing. I suffered for three nights, and then got the tooth extracted, which followed by a paradisiacal relief.  

What I concluded or gathered from these trying sufferings is this:

• I felt that dentine was a sovereign universe in its own right.
• Routine symptom-hunting and matching was not an enlightened and informed way for prescribing in this universe.
• Toothache can be caused by two classes of symptoms: viz. (a) pathological and (b) mechanical or structural.
•  The pathological could be treated, cured or mitigated by right selection of remedies, allopathic or homeopathic.
• But what was mechanical or caused by structural changes, as caries or crumbling of the enamel and cementum of the teeth, no medicines could effect any change.
•  Prescribing for the latter would be sheer waste of time and unnecessary suffering for the patient. May it be a ‘Dental Repertory’ of Clarke or Hering or a perforated card repertory of my friend, the late Dr. Ghulam Freed Gill; they didn’t show the way.
• The mark of a good physician was his knowledgeable restraint where to prescribe and where not to prescribe.

Now reverting to my own case:

The expert dentist, (and he was one of the best in Lahore), after destroying by drilling one of my sound tooth, in his stupid haste, asked me to get an OPG x-rays to determine the real tooth at fault. The OPG revealed that there was a carious hole on the side of the second premolar, facing the next sound tooth, and that carious spot could not be accessed by any means unless the adjacent tooth be extracted, which evidently was a nonsensical option. The carious hole had exposed the pulp which got momentarily affected, every time, by any change in the environs of the mouth and saliva. It was not, at that time, a case of pulpitis.  Had it been so, the remedies selected should have brought the intended results, more or less. His suggestion to make a root-canal was summarily rejected by me as it wouldn’t be a durable option, because the carious spot was just beneath the crown. On my request he extracted the tooth. During the process of extracting he confirmed that I was right because he found that root-canal could not be the best option.

INTROSPECTION:

In introspection I’m thinking about the possible prospect of saving teeth in identical conditions as my ‘late’ molar. The dentist extracted it because he could not mend the carious hole in its side, as there was no way to reach there. But could not that be reached by laser? Has not the science of orthodontics devised such a method? At least not in Pakistan as yet.  Anywhere in the world?  I don’t know! But it should be!!