Steve Marvell:   0:00
Hi, my name's Steve Marvell this is Crucial Survival      

Steve Marvell:   0:00
Today, I'm going to talk about survival dentistry.    

Steve Marvell:   5:17
I have a bad tooth. It needs root canal and it possibly needs an extraction. I’ve had problems with the dentists because I’ve moved house, because my dentist was a locum, and things have got just a bit delayed. 

Steve Marvell:   0:00
The other day I had raging toothache. It’s not something I’ve not had before, but it was particularly bad and normally speaking I’d have considered going to the dentist as soon as possible. However, dentists, at least my dentist and local dentists, are all closed. Thankfully, dentists are still working. It’s not that they are seeing people face to face. They are still on the phone. That might seem completely useless because they can’t look at teeth or make a decision based on what your teeth look like. But they’re still there. And so I phoned my practice and I was …

Steve Marvell:   0:00
[phone rings] 

Steve Marvell:   0:00
Hello. That’s right. I’m just making a film about my problem and the fact that I phoned the dentist and here we are. How strange is that? Thanks for the call. I really appreciate it. Yeah, Yeah. Okay. You keep well. Bye. 

Steve Marvell:   0:00
Well, that was weird. That was my dentist. 

Steve Marvell:   0:00
So I spoke to practise left a message. Dentist called. That was the guy. He talked about the problem. We talked about antibiotics. Decided that we weren’t going to use antibiotics and so I ended up with three main courses of action. That was:

Steve Marvell:   0:00
Swilling and that’s, say, teaspoon salt in a whole mug of water like the heat of a cup tea. Say, not so hot. You’ll scald yourself. But pretty, hot.  And swill that then spit again and do that three or four times a day.

Steve Marvell:   0:00
And I used oil of clove. Oil of cloves is an essential oil, and that’s been used with tooth care for a long time. Very strange. You just apply it topically. You do it with a cotton bud or your finger. 

Steve Marvell:   0:00
And I also used soluble aspirin. 

Steve Marvell:   0:00
Now, any drug or essential oil can have what are called contraindications, and that means that you can’t use certain drugs when you have certain conditions of certain other drugs. I have three different drugs for epilepsy, and so I spoke to the pharmacist and they said, “yes, you can use aspirin for those drugs and you can also use oil of cloves with those drugs”. However, oil of cloves can be a bit of an allergen, so be careful of that. Your pharmacist will talk to you about that. 

Steve Marvell:   0:00
And so which was most effective? The soluble aspirin was meh. The swilling did a great deal for bringing the infection down, but as my dentist was said, we avoided antibiotics because it wasn’t raging. It was draining and so swilling helped with the draining. And the oil of clothes was the magic bullet. That sorted that out within about 30 seconds and it lasted. It really did. I am now 48 hours later, pain-free. That might be because of the infection coming down. It might be that I had knocked the tooth. It might be the oil of clothes worked. I’d like to think because oil of cloves has a reputation for working with teeth that it was in fact that. 

Steve Marvell:   0:00
Hopefully, this story has been of use to you. And you can think about that if you have a dental problem during this crisis. But if you do have problems, don’t delay. Don’t let it get worse because the more you procrastinate., the worse the impact is and there are home remedies that you can take. 

Steve Marvell:   0:00
I’ll see you in the next episode. 

Steve Marvell:   0:00
In the meantime, keep well, stay indoors, and save lives.