I have 2 boys ages 12 and 6 years of age. My older son, teething almost didn't phase him. Both of them HATED the numbing gels. My younger son, would cry and scream and was inconsolable, and this ususally started at 10:00pm (I don't know why). Whenever I put my finger on his gums, he would scream. I tryed EVERYTHING short of taking him to the hospital asking for a morphine drip for teething. I tried different numbing gels, teething tablets, infants Motrin, teething toys that were in the fridge. I even tried Whiskey and applied it with a Q-Tip onto his teeth (I only did that once-it's a wifes tale and doesn't work). I called my pediatrician one evening while he was having an episode. She offered to see him that night, and I felt it was ridiculous to take him in for teething.
Then she told me, "well you know you can give him 1 dose of infants Motrin/Advil and 1 dose of Tylenol at the same time."
No, I didn't know. I was just giving him one or the other, but not both at the same time. She told me one was for immflamation and the other was for pain, and she didn't recommend it all the time, only when he was screaming like he was (she could hear him over the phone). I gave him 1 dose of infants Advil and 1 dose of infants Tylenol and within 20 minutes-he was fine and he slept. I only did this when he was crying and screaming the way he was-until his teeth came in. He is growing in his 6 year old molars, and he was with my husband-out to breakfast for some one-on-one time. He was eating his waffle, and he started to scream, like he did when he was a baby. My son told my husband his teeth hurt really bad, my husband called me and asked me if I thought it was a cavity. I wasn't sure. They got home, I looked in his mouth and the back of his gums were swollen, and I poked a Q-Tip in the back of his gums and he screamed. I said to myself, here we go again. This time, I only gave him childrens Advil, and he was okay. He's been selective about what he eats. No chips, crackers, things that are hard.
At night time, everything gets exaggerated and is worse- pain from teething or anything, colds, coughs, fevers, swelling, etc. There is no medical explanation for it (that I know of), it just is. The pain of teething is worse at night than it is during the day.
Giving him Advil or Motrin and Tylenol at the same time was the only thing that worked for us, and it lasted well over 8 hours.
Good Luck!