not to let the medicine numb the throat as it may interfere with the normal gag reflex and may make it possible for food to enter the lungs. Similar medicines are also available in powder form, as "teething powder". Acetaminophen and ibuprofen are also recommended to treat the pain and swelling that babies experience. It should only be used a few times a day so that it does not mask symptoms that are being experienced due to other medical conditions and not because of teething. Products that contain aspirin should never be given to a child unless directed by a pediatrician, due to the risk of Reye's syndrome. Some traditional medicine used to treat teething pain has been found to be harmful due to high lead content, with effects including toxic encephalopathy. "Surma" or "kohl" has traditionally been used in the Middle East and Indian subcontinent as a teething powder, as have the Middle Eastern "saoott"/"cebagin". "Santrinj" - a 98% lead oxide product otherwise used as a paint primer - is also used in the Middle East as a home remedy for teething. History Teething used to be considered (wrongly) a cause of death, as many children died in the first years of life, at the same time as teething occurs. "The tendency in the past to attribute serious disease to teething was so prevalent that in 1842 teething was the registered cause of death in 4.8% of all infants who died in London under the age of 1 year and 7.3% of those between the ages of 1 to 3 years according to the Registrar General's report." Ironically, while teething is a natural process which creates little more than discomfort, some methods for relieving teething pain have caused serious harm and even death. Old remedies for teething include "blistering, bleeding, placing leeches on the gums, and applying cautery to the back of the head". In the sixteenth century the French surgeon Ambroise Paré introduced the lancing of gums using a lancet, in the belief that teeth were failing to emerge from the gums due to lack of a pathway, and that this failure was a cause of death. This belief and practice persisted for centuries, with some exceptions, until towards the end of the nineteenth century lancing became increasingly controversial and was then abandoned, although as late as 1938 an Anglo-American dental textbook advised in favour of lancing, and