Mountain Medicine: The Forgotten Histories of Traditional Tooth Remedies

Amanda Winstead is a writer from the Portland, OR area with a background in communications and a passion for telling stories. Growing up, she spent summers in Maryland with her grandparents, walking sections of the Appalachian Trail or visiting historical sites in the area. More recently, she hiked the trail in full for the first time and fell absolutely in love, especially with its rich history. She was especially taken by the trail’s natural history and the way it links together the American story, from the site of George Washington’s inoculation of troops against smallpox to the last battlegrounds of Shay’s Rebellion. If you want to follow her writing journey you can find her on Twitter.

Appalachia has long had a reputation for doing things a little differently from the rest of the country. In some ways, this is rooted in positive associations of embracing the land and mountain creativity. Unfortunately, there are also negative “hillbilly” stereotypes to contend with.

One area in which both of these elements meet is in Appalachian oral care. There is, of course, a popular image of mountain folk having unsightly, crooked, or missing teeth. Yet, it has to be said that there are accounts of Appalachian citizens taking their tooth care seriously. Throughout the region’s history, mountain medicine has offered residents a plethora of remedies for symptom management and preventative care.

The Imperatives for Traditional Remedies

Before we delve into the specific remedies, let’s consider the factors that led to the adoption and persistence of traditional tooth treatment. First, as with many regions across the world, Appalachia has a rich cultural history that includes its own approaches to keeping healthy. Folk medicine in the region is the product of generations of acquired knowledge, experience, and superstition.

Families and communities would build up various remedies that were often passed down via oral tradition or by those locals identified to have specific areas of wisdom. Many people in Appalachia are familiar with the concept of Granny Women. These were considered healers who locals would go to or who would visit sick community members and provide them with healing substances, including those related to tooth pain. While in recent years these key community figures have been caught up in negative stereotypes of witches, they played a vital role in enabling wellness, providing care at times when resources and knowledge were scarce.

A persistent lack of healthcare access also gives some indication of why traditional remedies may persist. Even when professional care is more widely available, paying for a dentist without insurance can be challenging. Some clinics offer payment plans and seeing care at a dental school can also be an effective alternative option. Some dentists are also open to negotiating on prices. However, it remains the case that in socioeconomically deprived areas of Appalachia, this expenditure still isn’t an option. Therefore, turning to traditional remedies that have been passed down by generations of community members may seem preferable to people.

Symptom Relief

Many of the traditional tooth remedies of the Appalachian region are not designed for long-term or complex problems. Rather, in most cases, remedies are intended to provide immediate relief from symptoms. Especially with regard to pain issues, such as toothaches, there’s no shortage of Appalachian folk treatments, with many families swearing to their own versions and perpetuating these throughout successive generations.

After the 19th century, there’s certainly a common recommendation of swilling peroxide as a way to address oral pain or infection. However, prior to this, toothache treatments were related to items that Appalachian people had ready access to. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the precursor to swilling with peroxide was utilizing a mouthwash of hard liquor.

However, there were many plant-based remedies. Chewing ragweed is often cited as an Appalachian folk cure for toothache, as is holding a bag of warm ashes against the cheek in the vicinity of the pain. There are also reports of locals filling cavities with cobwebs or burned alum.

It’s also interesting to note that faith healing has a dental wellness history in Appalachia. Certainly, some of this is rooted in Judeo-Christian beliefs of various denominations. Though, it should also be noted that the specific folklore beliefs of the South, related to the community’s close relationships with the land has and continues to be important. A good example of this is the connection between folk music of the region, belief systems, and healing. Music has historically been a part of faith medicine and continues to be so today. Physicians in the region are still combining music with medical care — including dental treatment — as ways to heal and boost treatment efficacy.

Preventative Approaches

Prevention tends to be considered better than cure. Certainly, in recent years there have been reports that suggest Appalachian residents may not always be taking the right steps to protect their oral health. Indeed, public health researchers have found there’s a particular problem in the region with “Mountain Dew Mouth”, in which overconsumption of soda causing dental problems.

Certainly, historically and in contemporary times, making informed dietary choices can bolster prevention. For instance, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) or acid reflux can be triggered by certain foods and drinks. There is the potential for this to contribute to tooth decay and other oral health issues. Therefore, it’s considered wise to limit foods and drinks that lead to GERD symptoms, such as acidic fruit juices, energy drinks, spicy foods, and excessive candy. Fried food and alcohol are also contributors to GERD and acid reflux.

That said, there are also some Appalachian folk remedies that have historically been used as effective preventatives of dental issues. The region’s herbal medicine offers solutions that reflect contemporary methods of oral care. For instance, the root bark of sassafras was utilized as a toothpaste. Indeed, from a strictly cosmetic perspective, chewing sassafras bark was used to address tobacco addiction, potentially minimizing the nicotine yellowing of teeth.

As in many healing traditions, there are also more esoteric preventive measures. These approaches are more tied to popular beliefs than to balanced observations of health outcomes. Some such approaches include carrying a hog’s head bone around in one’s pocket, always putting the left shoe on first, and wearing nutmeg around the neck.

The Appalachian region has a rich history of traditional medicine, including that directed toward providing oral care. While the recommendations of Granny Women were rooted in lifestyle approaches and needs of the time, traditions may well be perpetuated today as a result of gaps in healthcare access. Issues such as toothaches were addressed by everything from plant medicine to the application of music in faith healing. Preventative dentistry involved rudimentary forms of toothpaste alongside effective dietary choices.