How to Drain an Abscess in an Emergency

I am going to look at two kinds of abscess, a tooth abscess and an armpit abscess, and share what I do and how they would be approached historically within Master Herbalism.

Tooth Abscess

They say a tooth abscess is serious, a deep infection that requires medical care, and they may be correct. However, I’ve found myself needing to deal with abscesses while unable to receive medical care or dentistry and I merely share my own results and musings. Ideally, I’d love my tooth problems solved professionally, that would be the ideal but this buys me time till I’m well enough to attend a dentist [an adverse reaction to an anaesthetic over a decade ago means I cannot receive dentistry until I do ‘the impossible’ and figure out how to strengthen critically weak veins first, the docs say that can’t be done either!]:

1. First I deal with the infection – I use the recommended antibiotic levels of garlic and then double them, because I’m not going to take a chance on an infection taking hold of me. But what I have learned is that with tooth and gum infections you can see the bacteria dying away, you can see and feel them retreat, their grip and pain decreases very noticeably very quickly – but comes right back if you quit taking the garlic too soon, so chase them till their germ army has died, defeated. In the past I have used wheatgrass to clear away an abscess but I have two different teeth that are prone to abscess [both have lost fillings and I cannot get them fixed] and while wheatgrass worked on one of them, it did not on the other.
2. Have an enema bucket on hand, because there are very many positive side effects to taking high dose garlic such as energy boost, glutathione boost, and also parasite killing – you may knock out a large parasite, ahem, how does she know that 🙂 a whole other story!
3. The actual draining involves quite simply applying some activated charcoal and keeping it on the spot overnight [it’s possible to keep some on during the day between meals too]. Simply take maybe quarter to half of a teaspoon and what I do is take it on the tip of my tongue and let my saliva mix a little with it till it becomes ready to pack up on the abscess, which I do with my tongue. It holds nicely there when it is wet and it expands as it drains all night long. In fact the first time I applied it I’d had this huge bulge of pus that cleared in 20 minutes, I could then bite on that tooth again. I have learned that while an infection will make it impossible to bite down with the tooth because of the pain, even when the infection is gone it is still impossible to bite down with the tooth because as long as the pus is there it is painful – so this is the stage where you may still think you are fighting the infection when really you don’t need the high amounts of garlic, you just need to drain in.

Armpit Abscess

Last week someone told me they were in a lot of pain with an abscess in their armpit and what did I think would work in alternative medicine. Hm. Well I’m experienced with draining my tooth abscess so I thought it could just be the same – and turns out there are testimonies out there online to the fact activated charcoal DOES drain an armpit abscess fantastically. However notice there is an infection with this too, so you want to kill that down too.

The person who told me about his armpit abscess had just been to his doctor and had already started antibiotics, so best he just finished them out. He said it was extremely painful, could hardly lift his arm. Well even with the antibiotics [or herbal equivalent eg garlic, turmeric, other herbs] in his shoes I’d still have applied the activated charcoal to drain it and give immediate relief, or at least overnight relief.

How to Apply Activated Charcoal to Armpit

Well that was my big question, it seems so easy to lodge it up between the gums and the jaw, but to get it to stay in one place under the arm for an extended period – as it turns out guaze, with the charcoal made into a little past spread over it and that can be held in place under the armpit, especially overnight in bed.

Simply mix enough charcoal with a little water to make it sticky and hold together.

Which Charcoal?

Two brands that I use are high quality Master Herbalist brands, one in the UK and one in the US:

UK: HerbsHandsHealing.co.uk, LiteFlush Powder

US: Christopher’s Original Formulas, Quick Colon Part 2

Funnily enough they are labelled as colon cleansing products – if you want to do a 5 day bowel cleanse to set yourself up for the ultimate detox, then these products would be how you go about that. This charcoal is also used in ER in cases of food poisoining – because of its amazing capacity to drain toxins. You will also see David Wolfe at the moment talking about charcoal as the greatest thing for health.

You will notice in the Master Herablist charcoal products that there are some extra ingredients, these actually make it very easy to hold together, like flax. There are no harmful ingredients, just foods and herbs.

Other Things That Help

Some other things that come to mind for drawing out toxins would be other types of poultices, and also castor oil. And other things you can do for inflammation and infection include turmeric, echinacea, astragalus. If you’d like to know more about how to use these things and other ways to look after your health naturally [outside of medical emergencies] and in survival situations, then the best course you can get on this is level 1 of the Master Herbalist course at The School of Natural Healing, called The Family Herbalist. This course is online and affordable. There is another new course of the same name that came out in the past couple of years, I’m astounded someone would take the same name, on top of which they charge huge money! So be sure you get the right one. And I can tell you that at certain times of the year like back to school and xmas that this course is on special offer, something like $100.

Any Questions or Comments?

I’d like to hear your experience in dealing with abscesses, it’s a healing journey! 🙂