Peppertooth

[desperance]

So every time a Chalet School girl gets toothache, Matron applies "chillie paste" to their swollen cheeks. Externally only, I believe, from context: but even so I was in some doubt, because everybody (else) is always hot on "don't handle hot chillies except with rubber gloves" and so on, so.

So I googled, and yup: people really do recommend pepper therapies for bad teeth. I haven't yet found one that applies externally, though. Mostly they are of the "yes, this will hurt at the time, but you'll feel better after" school of slathering it on the errant tooth itself. Presumably this is just banking on the endorphin rush, to which as we all know I am already addicted. One or two do add a caveat, "This is not for kids! They canna take it, cap'n!" - which clearly Matron was all too happy to ignore.

But my favourite calls for dissolving cayenne pepper in whisky, and applying that. Now if only our lovely dentist hadn't finally fixed all my toothy problems...