This post based in large part on my use and experimentation with Cayenne during the past 8 months. Within the last month I've had 4 root-canaled teeth extracted over the course of 3 visits ( 1 - 1 - 2).

I've used Cayenne and cayenne-like * peppers grown and taken from my garden. In the beginning of this experimentation roughly in February, the only such peppers on hand were those put in the freezer - whole, from last year's garden. At that time, the only wounds I had to work with were some pretty mild scrapes and scratches I had incurred with a little bleeding. In a "where there is smoke, there is fire" kind of adage, "where there is bleeding there may be a wound that could benefit from cayenne".... ;) Based on the early results as well as additional research/study done on my own, the results lead me to expand this year's garden to include a much larger patch of Cayenne and cayenne-like peppers.

* My experimenting and learning/reading/research has taught me that one does not need to exclusively use only those peppers labeled or thought of as strictly Cayenne Pepper. In a way this has somewhat become a generic term. Cayenne-like in this case includes other hot peppers, most but not all of which ripen red that are perhaps not specifically named/labeled/classified as true Cayenne, but are a derivative that includes the criticial ingredient - Capsicum. 6 such varieties were planted in this year's garden. They all came from a nursery that included a little plastic tag providing somebody's view (botanist OR momNpop) of the variety of pepper. Only one of these was actually labeled "Cayenne", 4 others were were distinct variants of "chili pepper". The garden also includes 3 healthy bushes of Habanero, which are not even peppers that ripen red but are nonetheless grouped, loosely, into the category of "hot pepper" or "cayenne-like" that seems to contain the critical ingredient.

Tooth one came out in mid-August, a pre-molar (3 roots) that required a little over 1 hours work for the holistic dentist to extract; there was some digging, pulling, pushing and prying going on to get it out. Due to the nature in which root-canaling compromises the toughness of the tooth and it's roots (they gradually become brittle), dentist used a method of splitting the tooth in 3 pieces, one for each root, and extracted each piece separately. The beginning of this procedure required about 20 minutes of drilling/cutting to remove the crown that had been placed over this root canaled tooth. Point being made here is to demonstrate that there was a fair amount of trauma incurred after which it is probably fair to say that it would not have been all that unsusual if pain/swelling and or infection had set in after the fact. Over the course of the 18 months since I first met him, this dentist has gotten to know and has become familiar with my general health outlook and ideals, so to speak, so he did not even think about writing me any prescriptions; he suggested I take whatever I take for pain/swelling assuming that I may be of the type to reach for typical OTC meds such as asperin, Tylenol, Motrin, etc.

It is a 3 hour drive one way to get to this dentist, so by the time I got home the novacaine was mostly warn off and pain, accompanied by swelling and puffyness of the cheak was very much beginning to set in. I had not planned it this way, but because I really wanted to avoid taking an OTC pill, I made a quick visit to the garden, plucked a few small and ripe red chillis, went back to the kitchen, roughly diced the peppers (not fine, but still somewhat small slices of pepper that included the whole seeds). There was some juice that resulted. I took these small slices - a healthy-sized teaspoon full, plus the little bit of juice, and poured them onto a piece of gauze that I had unfolded, then re-folded the gauze a few times to contain the pepper silces/seeds and make a wad, then placed the wad directly over the wound/socket and lightly bit down. To begin with I was not completly foreign to the hot-pepper experience, so the hot/spicey/tingling effect that ensued did not really bother me. I've since found that this effect only lasts about 30 to 40 minutes before it fades. It is interesting that my mind began to focuse on this hot/spicey tingling in my mouth, just as a matter of gauging it, and yeah, it was pretty spicey, but by the time it faded, it took me a while to consciously realize that the pain had also faded! The swelling did not go away completely, but at least it quit progressing and getting worse. I left this wad in place for about 3 hours, at which time it was around 8pm and I decided it was time to have something in the form of my first meal of the day. I spit out the wad, ate some light soup, then prepared and installed a fresh cayenne/gauze wad and left it in place right up to the point of going to sleep. For precautionary purposes, I do not advise sleeping with such a wad in place; it may come loose while asleep and possibly cause choking.

I awoke the next morning, pain free and the visible swelling of the cheek was gone, but some swelling at the wound site was still present, it was something I could feel more so than see. Within the next hour or so of waking up, some mild aching began to creep in, so another cayenne wad was prepared and put in place and left there for the next 7 hours. The aching pain quickly subsided. The wad was left in until it was removed for a light meal, and a new one put in till the end of the day and sleep. Awaking the second day, there was no pain and this remained the case for most of the day until some aching began to creep back in, so a fresh cayenne wad was prepared, installed, and left in place till bed time. This turned out to be the last such cayenne wad used in recovering from this one tooth/wound. The wound continued to heal and for the next two weeks or so there was some tenderness, some of which was probably related to the healing process and not directly related to the trauma that caused the wound. All and all, I felt pretty good about having gotten past this wound using only cayenne and gauze to treat the pain & swelling. At no point did any problems related to the onset of infection appear.

This same basic treatment has now been repeated 2 times, once for the second extraction in mid September (1 tooth), and one for the third extraction a day ago (2 side-by-side teeth removed). I've tweaked the procedure a little bit. For instance, in the interim, I've made a quart of cayenne-tincture from some of this year's crop. This is pretty easy to do. So now, after a wad has been in place for a few hours, just to kick it up a bit, I'll use a dropper to apply a dropper full of tincture onto the was while it's still in the mouth and let it soak in. Cayenne tincture is not nearly as hot as is the fresh/raw pepper with seeds.... it actually has a kind of sweetness to it. I use 190 proof grain, diluted 50% with distilled water, as the menstrum for making the tincture.

To this point, I have yet to use anything other than the Cayenne to treat the pain and swelling from these extractions. For the most part, there has been no pain except for that little bit of pain that set in before I could get the cayenne wad prepared and in place. Based on the first two extractions, I've been pain free and without the need to use anymore cayenne after day 3. This last extraction created a pretty big wound, so I'm guessing I may need to persist with the cayenne treatment maybe up to 4 or 5 days.... but we'll see. There has yet been zero infection set in. The most recent double-extraction is still pretty fresh, it created what is definitely the largest of the three wounds that resulted from these extractions, and this wound is still pretty recent......so time may still tell.......maybe this experiment will still explode in my face, so to speak, but at this point I'm pretty doubtful.

These are the highlights of the experiments so far. For now I'll mostly leave out some of the side-lights, like, people, friends, family, looking at me with head tilted, shaking head, as though I'm some kind of alien for conducting such experiments upon myself in the first place; it's been quite the empowering experience to experience the first hand results that I have in the face of such reactions from people that seems to border between friendly kidding and bitter ridicule :)

PS - some advice for anyone else who may try their own cayenne experimenting as described above

The cayenne/gauze wad as described above is basically a poultice. One thing to be aware of especially depending upon your experience with eating/drinking stuff containing spicey-hot pepper ingredients; over the course of time that this wad is in your mouth starting with when you first put it in, there will be a tendency for little drops of pepper juice to ooze and trickle down the back of your throat. This may cause alarm and or panic for some people as this may trigger the same spicey/hot tingling effect to occur on your throat. For the spicey-pepper newby, this may encourage them that it's time to freak out; it is not. Remain calm, this too will pass. I've found that keeping a glass of beverage handy to sip from helps wash down this juice; i've tried both water, and gingerale with success. In my experience, the bulk of the hot-spicey affect occurs in the mouth. Even when some of the juice trickles down the throat, the hot-spicey effect does not seem to nearly as strong on the throat as it is in the mouth.

Also, as these drops of pepper juice may continue to drain down your throat, they might breach the entry to the bronchials, which in turn will likely trigger some hard coughing. This has happened to me. It didn't cause any problems, just thought it worth pointing out. This trickling effect seems more likely to happen if one reclines while the wad is in place. After the hot/spicey tingling has mostly faded, say, after it's been in the mouth an hour or more, one get give themselves a boost of the spicey hot juice by biting down hard on the wad..... so lets be careful out there! ;)

Lastly, after having handled hot peppers, especially if one's fingers have come in contact with the juice or seeds, one may wish to exercise diligent hand washing methods so as to avoid propigating the hot-spicey effect to anywhere one subsequently touches said hands/fingers :)