In 19th Century Ireland, they would either spit in a frog’s mouth or if the pain was so bad, they would pop a frog in their mouth to draw out it's healing powers to cure your toothache but if that didn’t work, you could try put a potatoes in your pocket which they thought helped for some reason.
Smearing honey on your aching tooth was a popular form of toothache relief in the middle ages and Ancient Babylonians thought it meant you was possessed and the only cure was sleeping next to a human skull and kissing and licking it seven times in the night to get rid of the evil spirit.
The ancient Romans believed that gargling urine as mouthwash would help keep teeth white and free from decay, although it doesn't say if it should be your own, while the the ancient Egyptians believed in making a paste from crushed up mice to cure toothaches and it was also handily great for earache also although the crushed up spiders was strictly for the teeth and did nothing for any aching ears.
Ancient Greeks gargled with Donkey’s Milk (who even knew there was such a thing as Donkey’s milk?) but the default treatment for a toothache was to just pull the sucker out, but dental implants in bygone days were either bamboo pegs (China), piece of copper (Egypt) or just take the teeth from dead animals and use them.
Trimming you fingernails on Friday would keep that pesky toothache away as would placing a hard-boiled egg anywhere in a teething baby’s room, placing a slice of onion to the ear on the side of the aching tooth or slice a rabbits head open and rubbing the brain juice on the gums.
Thankfully dentistry has made huge advances so the next time a person has both hands and several dental instruments shoved in your mouth while telling you not to move just think, it could be worse. It could be Ancient Rome and the Dentist has just urinated in your mouth.
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