Your teeth are the hardest part of your body. They not only help you chew your food, while your tongue savour the tasty flavours, they go through a lot of other things as well, like your teeth help you tear open a sauce or wafers’ packet, help you with the hair clip, to close or open the hard closure of your favourite necklace and what not. But honestly, you shouldn’t be doing all this with your teeth. Your body has teeth so that you can chew food, that’ it! And of course give your face a structure and that’s really it! We never take proper care of our teeth and then we suffer through tooth ache, it might be for different reasons, cavity, swollen gums, plaque, sensitivity and worst of all, wisdom tooth! I don’t know why are they called wisdom tooth, they don’t even make us wise! But tooth ache is one of the most painful aches one can ever go through and sometimes you experience it at very odd hours, for instance at mid night and what can you do at that odd hour to relieve from your pain. I mean no dentist is sitting at his/her clinic waiting for you to show up with your aching tooth. You have to get through the night by yourself. For such situations I have a handful of remedies from the stuff that is lying in some corner at your home and which can help you sooth yourself for a while.
1. Clove: Clove is the hero who will come to save you from your horrible tooth ache. It is said to have anti-inflammatory, antibiotic and anaesthetic properties. Thus helping you relieve from the pain. You mix clove powder with any vegetable oil in your house and apply it directly to the affected area. Incase you have clove oil at your home, you can dip a small cotton ball into the clove oil and press it under your teeth. In case you have neither of these two, you can simply press a clove between your teeth and suck in the juices that are being released.

2. Pepper and salt: Yes you read it correct! These two not only enhance the flavours of your food they also help you sooth your pain. Sometimes I doubt if they are best friends? Jokes apart, if your teeth are sensitive then these two will help you out as the carry anti-inflammatory, antibacterial properties and are analgesic in nature. All you have to do is mix some salt and pepper and add a few drops of water to form a paste. Now apply this paste to the affected area. You can also gargle with warm water and salt mixture, it helps to reduce the pain. Additionally, rinsing your mouth with the mixture of lemon juice and warm salt water will help to reduce the swelling on your gums. Now you know why that advertisement keeps on asking you whether your toothpaste has salt?
   3. Asafetida: Asafetida is not only good for relieving from tooth ache it’s also great to sooth the bleeding gums. Just mix some asafetida with a few drops of lemon juice and apply it on the swollen/bleeding gums, it will reduce the problem. You can also add asafetida to some ghee and apply it the cavity in your teeth after warming it a little.
   4. Tea: Tea doesn’t only help you wake up in the morning and feel fresh in the evening, it also helps to sooth your tooth pain. Just press a warm tea bag (regular tea would work fine, but green tea does wonders!) between your teeth and try to squeeze out the tea water from the it and pull it through your teeth to get relief from the pain.
   5. Ginger: Ginger I guess is the most multi talented root I have ever come across. It has great medicinal properties. It has anti-inflammatory properties thus soothes the swollen and bleeding gums. Just grate the ginger root finely and add salt to it, massage your gums with this paste to relieve your swollen gums.
   These were some tips that would come handy in case your teeth or gums ache at odd hours. Though don’t forget to follow your regular oral hygiene regime to have healthy teeth and gums. Also make sure that you regularly visit your dentist.