This probably seems like it comes from completely out of the blue, but in addition to an oil company, I also have two children. Both of whom got teeth early, and both of whom had teething pain (it seemed) constantly for 12 months straight.
My babysitter also watches a little boy who’s getting his first teeth and suffering mightily through it. With the FDA now recommending that babies/toddlers NOT be given benzocaine, the active ingredient in topical medications like Baby Orajel, a lot of parents are looking for ways to ease the pain of teething. The little boy’s parents know I am an oil maker, and asked me to put something together that might offer their little guy some relief.
Pretty much anywhere you go online, you’ll see that clove oil will help with tooth pain. It’s pretty common knowledge, but when making a concoction to put on a baby’s sensitive gums, you don’t want to get the proportions wrong.
This mixture should have an extra-virgin olive oil base. Olive oil is thicker and more viscous than the usual carrier oil I recommend, sweet almond oil, so it tends to cling to the gums better. The recipe I use is:
- 5 drop essential oil of clove
- 20 drops of carrier oil
Normally I’ll make about 1/4oz at a time of this mixture and I don’t bother with a dropper top or dropper plug. You shake the bottle well, get some on your fingertip, and (carefully!) apply to sore gums. No real limit on the frequency of use, but common sense is key, as always.
The great thing about this is that while the clove oil mixture doesn’t provide instantaneous relief, it does help a good deal. And unlike benzocaine, it’s not going to result in choking on saliva, which is pretty scary (the topical anesthetic numbs the pain, but also can numb the back of the throat, resulting in choking). There’s also no risk for a condition called methemoglobinemia, a disorder in which the amount of oxygen carried through the blood stream is greatly reduced. Benzocaine has been linked to methemoglobinemia, which usually results in death, and most parents aren’t willing to take the risk just to numb a teething baby’s gums.
