When the odontalgia has already become inveterate and recurs in paroxysms, separated by intervals of calm, Celius Aurelianus counsels, among other things, that the general health be strengthened by temperate living, exercise, rubbing of the whole body (an ancient practice, now revived under the name of massage). He recommends, besides, special rubbing of the cheeks (to be carried out with a rough cloth), and also of the gums and teeth, and indicates a great number of medicaments, some of which are to be used during the paroxysms and others during the periods of calm. In regard to the use of narcotics, he very shrewdly observes that such remedies take away sensibility but not pain. Some doctors of those days, for the cure of odontalgia, had recourse to sternutatories, or to the dropping of special medicaments into the nose or into the ear, but Celius Aurelianus seems to have put but little faith in such means of cure. He, moreover, solemnly reproaches those who, to cure odontalgia, are too hasty in having recourse to the extraction of the aching tooth. To remove a part, says he, is not to cure it; and if every tooth that aches has to be extracted, it would be necessary to draw them all out when they all ache. Therefore, before having recourse to extraction, every other means of cure should first be tried. If the removal of the tooth becomes indispensable, he advises that it should never be performed during the violence of the pain, for from this serious consequences might arise (a prejudice which has not yet entirely vanished, and which is met with, sometimes, not only among common people, but even among physicians); and a still greater danger would be the extraction of teeth neither carious nor loose, seeing that, by consensus, the muscles, the eyes, and the brain might suffer. The author, on this point, quotes Herophilus and Heraclides of Tarentum, who related some cases in which the extraction of a tooth was followed by death. He alludes, moreover, to a passage of Erasistratus, regarding the “odontagogon of lead” (_plumbeum odontagogum_) which was exposed in the temple of Apollo at Delphi; as much as to show that it was not lawful to extract teeth other than those which were so loose that an instrument of lead was sufficiently strong to extract them. When the looseness of the teeth seems to depend upon the flaccidity of the gums, Celius Aurelianus recommends astringent mouth washes: decoctions of rind of pomegranate, of gall-nuts, of acacia, of quince, of myrtle berries, etc.; and besides these, lentiscine oil and asses’ milk, which latter was also believed to possess astringent virtues. Against hemorrhages of the gums, he advises the use of very fine coral powder, or of alum with honey.