Kilmarnock, Scotland: The administration of a purified formulation of plant-derived CBD (aka Epidiolex) provides significant short-term relief to patients suffering from acute toothaches, according to placebo-controlled clinical trial data published in the journal Evidence-Based Dentistry.
A pair of Scottish scientists assessed the use of Epidiolex versus placebo in 61 patients with moderate-to-severe dental pain. Forty patients received CBD in doses of either 10 or 20 mgs. Twenty-one subjects received a placebo. Patients’ pain was monitored for three hours following dosing.
Patients who consumed CBD, on average, experienced a greater than 50 percent reduction in their pain, investigators reported. By contrast, those receiving placebo experienced a 37.5 percent decrease in pain.
“Based on this randomized clinical trial, pure CBD drug Epidiolex demonstrates effective analgesia against acute toothache,” the study’s authors concluded.
The US Food & Drug Administration approved the prescription use of Epidiolex as an anti-epileptic drug in 2018. The DEA removed Epidiolex from the Controlled Substances Act in 2020.
Full text of the study, “Cannabidiol – an effective analgesic for toothache,” appears in Evidence-Based Dentistry.