Aspirin on Your Gums?
Don’t do it.
Every so often someone gets a toothache and they can’t get to a dentist right away, or they’re just afraid and want to take something now for immediate relief. One thing you do NOT want to do is put aspirin on your gum tissue.
Aspirin is an ACID, and it will burn your gum. It will create a large area of whitish gums where the acid had started burning the tissue. It will not do much to relieve the pain. If you’re going to take aspirin, swallow it – it then has some chance of providing relief for the toothache.
Sometimes a patient will have some other pain in their mouth, like a wisdom tooth coming in or an acute gum condition from periodontal disease. Once again, do NOT put aspirin on the gum. There is NO time that putting aspirin on your gum is even a palliative (emergency) treatment.
For a short term fix, taking 3 ibuprofen (like Advil) and 1 acetominophen (like Tylenol) can give stronger pain relief until you can get in to see the dentist. Any medication is a short term fix until definitive care can be rendered and the condition resolved.