I recently underwent a couple weeks of tooth pain/sensitivity and found 2 effective treatments

that work in less than 20min and last for hours.

Background data:

This tooth lost a filling some time back and is now hollow.  I'm arranging to have it canaled and capped, but couldn't wait for that.  The pain was such it made me sweat.  Couldn't possibly sleep, chewing was torture.  Sensitive to everything:  heat, cold, pressure. 

At its worst, the whole side of my head was that way, even teeth there is nothing wrong with.  It also came and went, sometimes horrible, sometimes completely absent.

Tooth pain is difficult to pin down.  All per-side go up the same nerve.  That can explain the de-localization.  That nerve threads through the temporomandibular joint, a known troublemaker.  So it 'can' be a particular tooth, or it can be something more general like this was.

Remedy #1:

I had the remnants of a tube of Sensodyne SC toothpaste; the SC being strontium chloride active ingredient.  It had worked for transient sensitivity before.  Not brushing with it, but spreading a fingertip blob of it on the tooth and gums and letting it sit there.

There's a catch.  Sensodyne has altered the formula and like P&G does with Tide, taken up more shelf space with variations on the brand which may disappoint.  The grocery ones are not the same as "the original".  It's now sold as "original flavor" in the US and elsewhere.  In fact, I bought replacements made in Thailand labeled in Indonesian that are indeed "the original",

including 10% strontium chloride.  Still the same company, GSK (global). 

Amazon "original flavor" made in US may or may not contain strontium chloride.  As happens with symptom-relief research, some says it definitely works, some says it does nothing more than placebo.  FDA may have banned strontium on that basis, and that it would be harmful if a child ate half a tube of it.  I can tell you that "placebo" toothpaste does NOT provide relief.  Whether it's the strontium, or the chemistry/pH, or just the flavorants, "original" Sensodyne works.  This pain was profound enough to where I couldn't possibly have 'imagined' it away.

By the theory they claim for strontium-- blocking tubules-- it shouldn't work in 20min, it should take weeks.  So I can't assert why or how it works, just that it does.  For me.  Your dentage may vary.  Tooth pain isn't just one thing.

Strontium is a metal.  Swallowing incidental amounts won't hurt you as much as not sleeping for days will.  But don't swallow any more than just slips by.  Might rinse after 20min.

Remedy #2:

CBD (+ Delta-8) vape pen.  You don't have to inhale it, just fill your mouth with the vapor and squish it around for ~20 seconds. 

That this as well as strontium do the same thing, I hypothesize the effect is not on the tooth per se but on the nerve. 

It's the nerve that's keeping you awake, so....

I suspect any of the 'caines would also work, but the supply chain is circuitous to say the least.

I can provide known-good vendors for both these remedies, on request.

Anbesol is a 'caine.  It is effective and relatively safe when used in absolute accord with directions.  It can be an irritant and in excess can be seriously dangerous.  Believe them when they say 'not for children under age 'x'.

Qualifying where I said "strontium is a metal":  So is sodium, which explodes upon contact with water. 

But neither chloride salt is dangerous in appropriate quantities.

Should mention that the first listed, cheapest, most readily available remedy is warm salt water rinse. 

But if nothing else, Sensodyne tastes better.

Get some Oil of Clove and saturate a small piece of cotton and poke it into the cavity with a toothpick.  This is what my grandpa did for my Mom and her sisters during the Depression when they couldn’t afford to go to the dentist.

 Oil of Clove is an ingredient of Anbesol and it is also what mothers for decades in the past used to rub on the gums of teething infants to calm the pain.  It works and its natural.   You can also place a whole clove over the cavity and gently bite down on it and the numbing qualities of the clove will travel down to the nerve and help to ease the pain.

I used to see Oil of Clove in drug stores where the dental supplies are sold, try looking there.

Hope you’re better soon.

As far as the Sensodyne toothpaste, my dentist has also recommended rubbing it over sensitive areas and it does work.  I haven’t had to do this for at least five years now, so I wasn’t aware the formula has changed.

Eddie

Can also take spice-aisle ground cloves and pack some into an emptied teabag, laid alongside the tooth.

Drugstores have long-since abandoned common 'folk' remedies in favor of much more expensive 'patent' advertised brands containing...... the folk remedy.  Along with a bunch of other snake oil, some potentially deleterious.  The 'patent' markup just pays for the advertising.  Funny how that works.