If you are suffering from jaw pain, there are many potential options for reducing your suffering. If you haven’t gotten good relief from typical over-the-counter pain relievers, or if you want to cut down on your use, you can try capsaicin cream. However, it’s worth noting that just because a product is available over-the-counter, it doesn’t mean the product is safe, and this includes capsaicin cream.

What Is Capsaicin Cream?

Capsaicin cream is a topical pain relief medication that is applied to the skin to relieve muscle and nerve pain. It’s now being said that Capsaicin may be able to help lung cancer. The active ingredient, capsaicin, is the compound that makes chili peppers hot. As a result, it can cause a mild burning sensation (or more than mild, see below).

What about Supplements or Spicy Foods?

In addition to creams, capsaicin is available as dietary supplements. You may also try to increase your capsaicin intake by eating more spicy foods. Research supports the use of these for pain control, but they also have more potential interactions with medication (see below).

What Can Capsaicin Help with?

Capsaicin has been tested in connection with many kinds of pain, including:

A high-dosage capsaicin patch has been approved for the treatment of post-therpetic neuropathy, though it has not been approved for other types of neuropathy. Not everyone responds to topical capsaicin cream or supplements. If you use the cream or supplements for a week or two and don’t get any results, it probably won’t work for you.

Potential Dangers of Capsaicin

Although capsaicin is generally recognized as safe, there are some potential concerns that capsaicin in supplements or food may have adverse effects for people with high blood pressure or taking high blood pressure medication. The FDA reported that there were rare, but serious cases of skin burns associated with the use of topical pain creams, including capsaicin creams. People are encouraged to talk to their doctors before using any over-the-counter medication, including capsaicin.

Drug-Free Jaw Pain Relief

If you are looking for relief from jaw pain that doesn’t involve any drugs or supplements, we offer drug-free TMJ treatment. To learn more about the treatment or how it can help you, please call the Spokane dentists at Collins Dentistry & Aesthetics at (509) 532-1111.