This is very urban-legendish to me. But I have an invested interest in this assertion as I regularly compete against the pain of my impacted wisdom teeth…
I never paid any mind to Orajel until impacted wisdom teeth happened to me in April, during finals! Long story short, I saw an oral surgeon and I ultimately didn’t have them removed, and they continue to be a nuisance to this very, very moment. I saw an Orajel commercial–one of those “dramatized testimonials”–and the woman in it says that her toothache was worst than labor pains! Joey Lawrence put it best when he said: “Whoa!!!”
As a frequent exaggerator, I can’t get upset with anyone else for doing the same to support a point, but you just can’t make pompous claims like that in a TV commercial! Maybe that woman didn’t have a natural childbirth, and so, the toothache was the worst pain she ever experienced. Or, maybe her toothache was just really, really bad. And take it from me, a bad toothache can leave you debilitated and unable to eat ginger snaps for a month.
Is this true? I guess this is subjective (or is it subjective?) but can anyone offer any insight? I’m going to ask my friend and best college roommate ever Cassie because she had her wisdom teeth removed right after she had a baby.
Edit: Well, I just realized that in my mind, I wasn’t making a distinction between labor and labor pains. But I read a message board of women who saw the commercial, and they still thought the claim was out there yonder. My mom says she’s had toothaches that were far worse than labor pains. I think I can imagine that–labor pains don’t look so bad.
Edit: Cassie says, “Hell no, I’m sorry, but a tiny irritation in your teeth does not compare…” and I’ll just leave it at that!
5 Comments
08/08/2008 at 5:33 pm
Hahaha, well, to add a correction, I’ve had horrible toothaches because I have a severe aversion to the dentist and therefore haven’t been since I was 15… so I haven’t gotten my wisdom teeth removed yet. I need to, but I haven’t.
08/08/2008 at 6:12 pm
Oh, now I remember! You said you couldn’t get them removed because you didn’t have time to recover from the surgery while watching the baby. Meanwhile, I thought I could take four finals after having my wisdom teeth removed!
Cassie, you need to bring YOUR blog back!
08/15/2008 at 12:41 am
I CANT’ SPEAK FOR CHILDBIRTH BUT I HAD AN ABSCESS THAT WAS SO BAD THE DENTIST TOLD ME IT WAS THE WORST HE EVER SAW IN HIS CAREER. AND NOT ONLY DID IT KEEP ME UP ALL NIGHT ROCKING MYSELF SILENTLY WITH TEARS STREAMING DOWN MY FACE BUT I ALSO CONTEMPLATED SUICIDE JUST TO STOP THE PAIN. I DONT KNOW IF CHILD BIRTH IS THAT BAD…..I GUESS COMPARE.
10/17/2008 at 9:15 pm
I have a cousin who had four boys (Grown with children of there own) The first time I heard this was from her very own mouth…”Everett, I would rather have a baby!” (She was talking about having one now….as opposed to a toothache!) I also have experienced an abscess…..and I’m with her. (Can’t say anything about labor pains. If it were that men could have labor pains (I’m as hetero as they come by the way) I think I might would opt for the baby as well. (Smile)
12/12/2008 at 7:20 pm
The woman claiming her tooth ache was worse than labor pains is out of her mind. It’s almost insulting to women having natural child birth. It makes me feel like we shouldn’t believe one word of this silly commerical.