Cocaine Toothache Drops

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Specializes in CCU, Geriatrics, Critical Care, Tele.

Nurses, did you know that in the US, cocaine was sold over the counter until 1914 and was commonly found in products like toothache drops, dandruff remedies and medicinal tonics?

1885 advertisement of cocaine for dental pain in children

cocaine_tooth_ache_drops.jpg

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Cool! Kinda makes sense lol

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Specializes in Trauma Surgical ICU.

Oh yeah, it was used for a lot of things.. Didn't the early "coke" have coke in it LOL

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Specializes in Trauma Surgical ICU.

Yep, it did....No wonder people back then were so happy :)

when launched, Coca-Cola's two key ingredients were cocaine and caffeine. The cocaine was derived from the coca leaf and the caffeine from kola nut, leading to the name Coca-Cola (the "K" in Kola was replaced with a "C" for marketing purposes).[37][38]

[h=3]Coca – cocaine[/h]Pemberton called for five ounces of coca leaf per gallon of syrup, a significant dose; in 1891, Candler claimed his formula (altered extensively from Pemberton's original) contained only a tenth of this amount. Coca-Cola once contained an estimated nine milligrams of cocaine per glass. In 1903, it was removed.[39]

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Lol drinking a coke right now...how ironic

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Specializes in med-surg, psych, ER, school nurse-CRNP.

I remember hearing that. Didn't Merchurochrome actually have mercury in it as well? Or Merthiolate? Amazing the stuff we used to do and lived to tell the tale!

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

Laudanum was opium as was Paregoric...those were the days....

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Specializes in med-surg, psych, ER, school nurse-CRNP.

My Mama used to tell me about Paregoric...I accused her of making it up! LOL

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I'm gonna have to talk with those Canadian pharmacies that keep emailing me about this.

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Specializes in Trauma Surgical ICU.

Novacain and the epidural are also synthetic forms of cocaine too.. So it is still used in modern medicine.

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We have liquid cocaine in our pyxis for nosebleeds. The doctor asked me to get some for a patient the other day and I was all "haha, that's funny" and the doc was all "no really, we use it all the time."

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Nigh onto many decades ago we had little 5cc screw-top glass vials of 100% pure medical grade cocaine in the ICU for nasal intubation-- we put sterile Q-tips in it, then anesthesia jammed them up in the nose for elective intubations. Never reused a Q-tip, new ones only if more was needed.

We were SUPPOSED to discard the leftovers ... but you know, if you let it evaporate ...

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