Hi Laura, my tooth that was absessed and they said the root was dying was also very painful when I added the iodine. Perhaps you can just oil pull with the oil and increase the amount of oil pulls you do in a day or consecutively. I also wanted to tell you about an alkalizing drink that I learned about which is said to cause the saliva PH to return to a normal range of 6.2 to 6.4 within 3 days. It consists of 1 cup water, 1 whole lemon cut in 8 pieces rind and all, 1 inch sliced ginger root and 1 Tablespoon cold pressed organic Olive oil. Blended together 1 to 2 minutes. Then strain and drink or sip. If you leave the seeds out of the lemon you can drink it without straining it. I think it's great. I need to get more testing strips to verify the ph is at 6.4 though as I just started using it. My ph has always been more on the acid side. This is IMHO.