Sooner or later almost all of us have to have a tooth pulled. We may have wisdom teeth crowding the rest of our mouth, or we may break a tooth or suffer gum disease. The pain of dental surgery, however, is a real problem, sometimes for several weeks. Serratiopeptidase, the enzyme that is also known as serrapeptase, can be part of pain relief after dental procedures.

The clinical research on the efficacy of serratiopeptidase has been conducted at the King Abdullah University Hospital in Jordan. Dentists gave patients who had their third molar tooth removed either a placebo (sugar pill) or serratiopeptidase.

Some of the benefits that dentists were expecting failed to materialize. Despite the fact that serratiopeptidase is known to prevent the formation of excessive blood clots, the dental patients who took the enzyme didn't experience less swelling.

But they did experience less pain. Serratiopeptidase relieves pain after a tooth extraction even when no other pain reliever is taken. It's not unreasonable to suppose it may (although it's not scientifically proven) also increase pain relief when other pain killers are used.

The best time to take serratiopeptidase is after a dental procedure, not before. There is no pain prevention benefit associated with the medication. In the unlikely case that you are experiencing bleeding even after your procedure, don't take serratiopeptidase. There are no reports of serratiopeptidase increasing bleeding after dental work, but we don't want you to be the world's first case.

If you take serratiopeptidase, you don't need to take other proteolytic enzymes such as bromelain, papain, and chymotrypsin. Serratiopeptidase is stronger than the other enzymes and you get maximum effect without taking them. Combining serratiopeptidase with the anti-inflammatory ingredient MSM, however, usually is beneficial. Serratiopeptidase helps relieve existing pain and MSM helps prevent new inflammation.