Recently, a blogger gave advice on a social platform and said that his gums were severely swollen and painful, so drinking pepper egg water would help immediately. The specific method is to break an egg into a bowl, add some crushed pepper, rinse it with 100℃ water, and add a little salt to it for better taste. The topic # drink pepper egg water for swollen and painful gums # also became a hot search topic.
Does this method work? The reporter interviewed Ma Yanxia, a resident physician in the Department of Stomatology at Nanjing Tongren Hospital. She said frankly that from the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, Zanthoxylum bungeanum is a traditional Chinese medicine with clear analgesic function, but the "folk recipe" of pepper and eggs lacks sufficient scientific basis to support it, and most of the time it is just a "placebo effect."
Yangzi Evening News/Ziniu News reporter Xu Qianqian
There are many causes of gum swelling and pain, such as dental caries, pulpitis, apical periodontitis, and dental trauma. Ma Yanxia told reporters that if the gum swelling and pain is caused by periodontitis, it is mostly due to acute swelling and pain caused by local calculus irritating the gums. Clinically, the gums will be flushed, and if there is pus, it will also need to be incised and drained. "Apical periodontitis can also cause swelling and pain in the gums. This is because tooth root inflammation causes swelling and pain in the gums and even bulges. The inflammatory exudate from the tooth root needs to be drained out as soon as possible. In clinical practice, the method of opening the pulp cavity of the tooth is mostly used."
"The purpose of drinking pepper egg water as mentioned in the hot search posts should be for local pain relief, but by taking it orally, it can actually be understood as a kind of general anesthesia, and the effect is minimal. At present, there is no relevant Theoretical basis to prove its role and effect." Ma Yanxia said that in the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, Zanthoxylum bungeanum pepper can indeed relieve local pain, but there is no mention of pepper or pepper powder.
The reporter found that for the problem of gum swelling and pain, in addition to the so-called pepper egg water mentioned above, liquor is also listed as a "good medicine" for pain relief by some people. Ma Yanxia reminded that when gum swelling and pain occur, capillaries are in a state of expansion. Drinking alcohol at this time will aggravate the expansion of capillaries.
In addition, many patients take anti-inflammatory drugs or analgesics during swelling and pain. The commonly used anti-inflammatory drugs in the dental department are cephalosporins, which react with alcohol, inhibit the metabolism of alcohol, and can be fatal in severe cases. Common analgesics such as Fenbid, if combined with alcohol, may aggravate gastrointestinal symptoms, such as peptic tract ulcers and gastrointestinal bleeding. Therefore, it is not recommended that patients come into contact with alcohol during gum swelling and pain.
In life, there are still many people who don't care about gum swelling and pain. They always feel that they can tolerate it for two days and that they don't need special treatment. Ma Yanxia reminds that this view needs to be abandoned! If the gum swelling and pain is caused by a chronic inflammatory disease of the oral cavity, it is a manifestation of the oral disease in the acute stage. As time goes by, the swelling and pain will disappear without treatment, but it will "return" to the state of chronic inflammation. At this time, basic periodontal treatment is required, including supragingival scaling, subgingival scaling, etc. Otherwise, when the patient's resistance is reduced or affected by other factors, the disease will still recur. "The most important reason for gum swelling and pain is Only by finding and eliminating the cause can we fundamentally solve the problem."
During the period of gum swelling and pain, patients should pay attention to avoid ingesting foods that are too hard, too cold, too hot, too acidic or spicy, so as not to aggravate local inflammation. You should also keep your mouth clean and brush your teeth regularly. It is recommended to choose a toothbrush with soft bristles and an anti-inflammatory toothpaste or mouthwash. (Yangzi Evening News)