Owww! My Aching Tooth!

As a kid growing up in the 60s and 70s, healthcare was a bit different than it is now. You didn't go to the doctor's office for minor injuries and normal childhood diseases. Children were often purposely exposed to another child with chickenpox just to get it over with. Mumps and measles were awful, achy weeks of fever dreams but they passed. Sometimes, the first efforts to alleviate a toothache was rinsing with warm salt water and then placing a clove next to the afflicted tooth. I always found that a little comforting; it tingled and was a little bit bitter, but it did ease the toothache. Cloves came in a little paperboard box and were stored with the spices. It's primary purpose in our household was to stud baked ham at Christmas or Easter. Who knows how long that one box of cloves stayed up there in the cupboard, but I suspect the hard, dried little things didn't spoil and were good for years. When baked with ham, the clove gives a pleasant counterpart to the very sweet, caramelized pineapple slices that were also baked with it. The cloves also served as little anchors the pineapple rings hung from. It's hard to describe what clove tastes like but I'd offer warmly bitter with a bit of a tingling essence. After the ham is cooked, the cloves are removed and discarded but it's a wonderful sweet/bitter tang flavor left behind on the meat. But where do cloves come from and what else are they used for? According to Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, cloves, along with nutmeg and cinnamon come from what's known as the spice islands — Maluku Islands. The islands are an east Indonesian archipelago known for volcanoes and palm-lined beaches. Cloves are actually dried flower buds, not seeds as one might think. The clove tree produces these clusters of greenish-pink flower buds which are harvested before blossoming and then dried in the sun where they turn black and hardened. Cloves are ancient spices and while we Americans most associate them with ham, gingerbread, pumpkin pie, chai tea and mulled wine, cloves are a staple world-wide in Indian, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and Mexican cooking. Considered one of the "warm" spices, can you imagine what it might be like to wander the aromatic forests of the spice islands? I Googled the islands regarding traveling and was informed the Maluku islands are not very touristy. "Undiscovered paradise" was one description and Trip Advisor shared, "Visitors can look forward to pristine sands, clear blue waters, and plenty of pelagics. Fantastic place for a snorkel." Pelagics? It has something to do with fish. Another search result, though, also mentioned terrorism warnings for tourists. Ok, down a couple notches on the bucket list. Anyway, back to cloves as medicine. To this day, lots of people rely on the natural therapeutic benefits of cloves. According to "The Clove Tree and Its Significance" at www.portdental.com, tooth pain is a chronic bane to human existence and can be caused by many things such as tooth decay, an infected tooth or the eruption of third molars… the wisdom teeth. The primary active ingredient in cloves is eugenol, which acts as a natural anesthetic. Clove is distilled to create clove oil which is the most common form of it used medicinally. It is an essential oil and, if the user finds it too strong to be tolerated, it can be diluted with olive or coconut oil. Clove oil also has anti-inflammatory properties which also add to easing pain. There is some evidence that clove can also aid in battling some cancers, particularly breast cancer. The use of cloves and clove oils medicinally do have a few accompanying warnings. The piece suggests first testing for an allergic reaction by applying a small amount to the inside of one's elbow. Also, when used too frequently and in too high a concentration, problems with liver function have been noted. Back to the late 60s… If a clove didn't do the trick with a toothache, next up in the regimen was good old baby aspirin. What kid didn't love those little orange-flavored tablets? Yum. More, please. Finally, if all else failed, a trip to the dentist was in order. My childhood dentist's name was Dr. Vatne. I was terrified of him. He had a very strong German accent, and I remember not being able to understand him. When it came time for the good old drill, he might have asked me if I wanted Novocain and being so scared, I probably shook my head "no." As you can imagine, it took me well into adulthood to get over my fear of dentists.