Homoeopathic Aids in Dentistry

Case I: Boy of twelve. Upper right cuspid not all other teeth in the mouth fully erupted for a year. X-ray no mechanical obstruction. Three doses a week apart of Calcarea carb. 6x potency. Did not see him for a month after last dose, at that time cusp of the tooth was nearly through. Three months later teeth were practically fully erupted. The boy is a redhead, obstinate, snarly, gives sharp answers; has red inflamed eye lids, sour stomach and frequent attacks of vomiting. Nine months later very great improvement in general. Happier disposition and is growing like a weed.
Case II: Small child. Dirty mouth, black crescents at cervical margins of all teeth, labial surfaces of incisors black spots. Cleaned with pumice, black areas returned in several months. The child’s mother brushes the teeth with powder with no results. One dose Kreosote 1M. Teeth cleaned again with pumice. Six months later, mouth cleaner, teeth smooth and no signs of return of black areas. Enamel slightly stained.
Case III: Police officer. Mandibular nerve block, two days previous to my meeting him in a drug store, where he was cursing, swearing, thrashing around, hanging on to his face, asking the druggist to give him poison. He just couldn’t stand the pain. Loaded to the gills with asperin and bromide. Took him to my office where I gave him Chamomilla 6x in hot water. As I expected, he lapped them up one  minute. Fifteen minutes later he was much quieter and said that he could finish his tour of duty. Saw him that day and he said that the pain was practically all gone in two hours.
Case IV: Myself. Mandibular nerve block one hour previous. Pain almost unbearable; irritable, peevish, erratic, weepy, restless, waving of arms, cursing everything and everybody. Could not keep still, trembling, upset my coffee cup, didn’t care. My sister said, “Don’t make a fool of yourself; why don’t you take a remedy?” I got my box of remedies and upset the whole works, felt like throwing them out the window; but four little letters on the cork of a bottle were staring me, in face, CHAM. Chamomilla; Childishness, peevishness, irritability, pain. One dose, dry powder, 1000″ potency. I lay down on a sofa and in fifteen minutes I was asleep. Awakened in an hour, sore but no pain.
Case V:A  man aged thirty. Mandibular nerve block two days previous. Called me at two a.m., could not get to sleep, restless, pain increasing. Came to the office carrying a small pail of cracked ice. Pain in socket rather than in ramus of jaw” no swelling, good clot, gums not mutilated, x-ray. showed all of tooth removed. Sat bolt upright in chair, eyes almost popping out of his head.ihe was so wide awake. Could not wait an instant after ice in his mouth had melted before placing another piece in his mouth. This is how I treated his case homoeopathically. I noted that he was wakeful, uncommonly so, mind and senses were very acute, his movements were very quick. The pain he had was in and around the area of injury; this pain was relieved by cold, intense, i.e., ice. Look in the repertory and see what remedies have wakefulness greatly marked and pain, especially a sore pain, if it can be so described, which is relieved by application of ice, and Coffea cruda is most prominent. I gave him a single dose (probably the 20Q” potency). I sat down and pretended to relax but was watching him; soon I noticed that he used the ice less frequently and that his head was back in . the head rest. In about twenty minutes to half an hour, he made the remark that he could go to sleep if he were home. Naturally I suggested’ that he go home and try it.
Case VI: Homoeopathic physician, age fifty. Two or three similar previous experiences from the injection of novocaine. Pain, soreness, swelling, lameness in the, tendo Achillis of the left foot. He is one of the best known homoeopathic physician in the country. When he called me up I could tell that he was quite disturbed and I thought it strange that he, with his knowledge of homoeopathic materia medica, should ask me to suggest a remedy. I went on the assumption that he was somewhat stirred up and irritable and suggested Chamomilla. I have used Chamomilla so many times after the use of novocain where there is pain, seemingly caused by the drug rather than from the surgery, that I think that Chamomilla is a specific. In all cases previous to injection of novocain, especially to aged, frail, weak, convalescent, fear, heart, and several insane I administer Aconite, any potency from the tincture to the thirtieth. Dose administered. ten to fifteen minutes before beginning of injection. It seems to smooth the patients but, quiets them, they cooperate and they do not. seem to have the all-gone symptoms that many have after novocain. Read Kent’s Materia Medica wherein he describes Aconite symptoms as of onslaught, violent, tempest, . tornado, short duration. Perhaps the unpleasant symptoms that many have while under going tooth extraction with novocain is nothing more than fear. Well, if it is, it would be perfectly natural for anyone to have fear if there came a very sudden and violent storm and Aconite, hasproduced just that type of fear in the provers.
Calcareous And Serum Deposits On The Teeth
My experience in treating these cases with homoeopathic remedies has be  disappointing in all but a few. Calcarea phos renalis 12   has been recommended, once a day for two or three weeks, then a wait for a month or so and then another period of the remedy. All deposits must be removed with instruments, teeth cleaned and polished and then the remedy given. I cannot say that I had ever two cases where I honestly felt that the remedy did prevent deposits. In other cases further deposits were prevented but I felt that it was due more to the added interest and the careful attention given in cleaning the teeth by the patient themselves.
I know that there are many remedies listed under ‘toothache’, but we as dentists  know that there are so many causes of pain commonly called toothache, and that a very large percentage of them are relieved by instruments, that I have not paid much attention to relieving just toothache with remedies. However, there are certain of cases and conditions where there is the beginning of an ulceration where remedies do greatly relieve and shorten the  period of discomfort. I have seen Silica andMercury hasten the formation of  pus and produce such an amount of discharge  from a abscessing area as to be astounding. But pain caused from pulp stones, sudden sharp  neuralgic pains and trifacial neuralgia I have cured, I trust permanently, and some greatly relieved, by using Magnesium phos .in a series of potencies over a period of a year, ranging from the ten thousandth to the hundred thousandth .
I have cured numerous cases of so-call trench mouth in a few days with Mercury of a medium high potency.
Case : Man and wife, the wife’s parents and the pointer dog.
On entering the home the peculiar odour of  trench mouth was well-nigh overpowering. All members of family were highly excited, said that the dog had gone mad, had bitten one of them; he ran around the house biting the furniture, whining then sharp nervous barks as though in pain. The dog was tied up in cellar and I watched him, he would lean his head against things and then lose his temper and bite at anything he could get hold of. I spoke to him and he looked at me with the most disconsolate expression and wagged his tail, then he would go mad again. He kept his lips open and his gums were greatly inflamed, swollen, gray borders, exuding a pussy serum. The people had phoned the municipality to come and get the dog and put him out of the way. I said that I did not believe that the dog had rabies but that it was trench mouth, and that his symptoms of madness were simply from pain and discomfort in his mouth and the general feeling of discomfort.
All members of the family showed in a human way exactly the same symptoms as the dog, being rather hard to handle. I decided I needed help on the case and called a homoeopathic physician. The symptoms were all taken down and studied and Sepia was the remedy decided on. One dose of the thousandth potency was given with instructions to use no mouth wash except dilute milk. Some of the remedy was put into some of the dilute milk well stirred, and offered to the dog. He finally took a little of it. I called up the next day and found that the family was better but that the dog had been taken awau. On the second day family was much. However, they had decided that they should have anti-rabies inoculation, which was done against our advice. The dog was electrocuted and head examined for rabies, none found.
After very hard extractions where the jaw is sore and bruised Arnica hastens the recovery wonderfully.
For about ten years, I did much extracting at a free medical clinic in Boston where only absolutely pure homoeopathic therapeutics were used. You can well imagine the type of people who came to this clinic for treatment. Calendula in aqueous solution was used in every case as a mouth wash and not a single case ever came back with any sloughing or infection. The healing of the wounds was faster than one would ordinarily expect to see, even in people of better circumstances. Many of these people were underfed, underclothed,  underhoused and more or less vicious in mind and body.
I have had numerous cases come to me where there had been hard extraction, gum tissue practically healed, more or less discomfort, either swelling or the beginning of suppuration, or a hard sore point with the gum tightly drawn over it all due to a loosened outer alveolar plate or spiculae. A dose of Silica will hasten the suppuration and the spiculae will soon make its appearance so that it can be easily removed.
I think that I have covered the general run of dental cases wherein homoeopathic therapeutics can be used to the best advantage to the operator as well as the patient. In fact, I fully believe that the results obtained are far beyond those obtained by any other system of therapeutics and produce results where no other system of therapeutics could even make a dent.
Source: The Homoeopathic Heritage