Dealing With A Toothache On Your Backpacking Trip

 by Ric Henderson 

A toothache is horrible to deal with when you are at home, but when you are on the trail and experiencing this pain, you have no choice but to suck it up and take the pain. Now there are times that a toothache can get so bad, that it literally takes you off of your feet. The rest of the group may sympathize with your pain, but they will not be happy about sitting around and listening to you complain about your toothache.

While your first aid kit should have some things in it that will help you, they may not work very well or be able to take away all of the pain. The other fact is that you don’t want to exhaust the supply of pain medicine on your tooth when someone could get seriously hurt and need the pain medication more. This is not to belittle a toothache, but it pales in comparison to a broken leg or arm.

If you are getting signs of the toothache before your trip, it is actually probably better to go to the dentist and address is or to bow out of the trip. If your dentist cannot fit you in, you don’t want to be the person responsible for ruining the trip. Let everyone know what is going on and there will more than likely be very understanding about it.

Ok, so what are you supposed to do when you are out on the trail and you get your knees buckled by an unsuspecting tooth problem? If you have the foresight, you can throw some cloves into your bag. They are not going to weigh down your pack and they are a great natural cure for a toothache. All you have to do is crush them down, put them into a napkin and then place it right on the tooth. You can actually mold the napkin around the area and the cloves will actually numb the area.

Something else that you can do with something that will more than likely be in someone’s bag is to dissolve some salt in warm water and continue to rinse your mouth with it until the pain subsides. Worst case, you can fill your water bottle with the concoction and continue this process and stay on the move. Other than stopping to warm up the water, you will create little inconvenience to the rest of the group.

Two other items that may be in the pack are an onion or garlic. By chewing on either of these, you can alleviate some of the pain that you are experiencing. While it may initially hurt when you start to bite down, the properties of either of these will eventually kick in and stop the pain. Your breath may not be very good, but at least the pain will subside.

A toothache is never an enjoyable experience, but if they happen out on the trail, it can be really miserable. Stopping and lying down to wait until the pain subsides is generally not an option so you will have to use what nature gives you to make it go away. Make sure some of these items find their way into your bag and an unsuspecting toothache will not cripple your trip.