Friend of mine was on a long pack and developed a toothache. Stopped by a gas station store and all they had was Orajel. Topical Novocaine that eased his toothache till he finished. Only 4 more days.

Next trip, 2 weeks long and developed a nasty blister on his heel. Hurt like hell. Well he used other language. When he pulled out his med kit to clean the blister, he noticed he still had the Orajel. He put some on the blister with a little Neosporin and it worked. The pain went down considerably and the Neo kept it clean.

Anyone else use Orajel or something similar when packing?

I never thought of this -- thanks.

Tell your friend to stop chewing on his feet. That will solve both problems. Neosporin also makes a +Pain Relief ointment which works well.

The Bottom Line Neosporin (and Triple Antibiotic) are great products that have the unfortunate ability to cause a significant number of skin allergies. If you have a choice, stick with Polysporin or Bacitracin.

Neosporin has three active antibiotic ingredients in a petroleum jelly base: neomycin, polysporin, and bacitracin. "Triple Antibiotic" has the same formulation. It is only the neomycin that causes the allergy.

Both Bacitracin and Polysporin are very good topical antibiotics and are available as single agents or in combination with each other. They have the same healing potential as Neosporin without the allergy risk.

Orajel sounds interesting..

New use for the half used tube of it that Walker uses for teething. Who woulda thought that one? Lol!

I was mentioning this "great new idea" about Orajel to a friend of mine last night. She laughed and said she and all the other ballerinas she knows have been using this trick for years.

Makes you feel manly, don't it! Anyway, I'm going to start including a small tube in my kit. Thanks for the tip.

On a backpack in Colorado this summer I got "Monkey Butt" one day and used Triple Antibiotic + pain med. It worked great and after the 2nd day I was fine.

Orajel on Monkey Butt... well... maybe, as a last resort.

I've used Orajel to remove some pain around a nasty cut. It worked a little bit. The problem with Orajel is that it is really made for oral cavity with soft, moist flesh that absorbs the medication quickly and easily. When you try to put it on skin - the penetration of the painkiller is minimal. But yes, it is a good item to have in a med-kit

We also use something called LET in the Emergency Dep't, lidocaine, epinephrine, tetracaine as a topical. Similar to oroghel, which is just benzocaine. LET isn't used very often because like the last writer mentioned, its slow and not as effective as injected lidocaine. I might steal a bit the next time I'm at work though!

I was performing in Germany and had a small piece of glass (from a shattered bulb from a light in the wings) about half the size of a dime embed deeply into my foot. The physical therapist used some Orajel around the wound to dig it out with a knife & tweezers. Still hurt, but not nearly as much as without the gel.