Don't know how or why it worked but know it did - when my daughter was teething and crying my father - in - law dug dock root and my cut it into beads. My mother-in-law strung them into a necklace and put them around her neck. As long as she wore the necklace she didn't cry while teething. But if I took them off her - as I did when I took her to the doctor - she would cry. When I put them back on the crying would stop.