Tooth Pain

   1. Introduction to tooth pain

   2. Causes of tooth pain

   3. Prevention of tooth pain

   4. Home remedies for tooth pain

   5. Treatment of tooth pain

Introduction to tooth pain

“Tooth pain” or “Tooth ache” can be generally regarded as pain around a particular tooth, teeth or jaws. Tooth pain can range from mild discomfort or sensitivity to being excruciatingly painful. Some women have even compared toothpain to being as painful as child birth. Of course, these might be exaggerated claims from some desperate women, but it does reflect the intensity of the pain arising from a toothache.

The actual pain we feel is due to the irritation of the nerves which are associated with the tooth/teeth. If you didn’t know, nerves are responsible for carrying sensations like heat, cold, touch and PAIN to the brain. In this case when the nerves inside the tooth are irritated, these carry the pain impulse to the brain.

Causes of toothpain

Most of the causes of tooth pain are limited to oral/dental causes.

The oral causes of tooth pain are

    * Tooth Decay or Cavity (being the most common cause of tooth pain)

The most common cause of tooth pain is Tooth Decay. Tooth decay is the degradation of the tooth due to harmful acids secreted by bacteria in the oral cavity.

    * Gum Disease

The next important causing agent of tooth pain is gum disease. Poor oral hygiene leads to bacterial plaque accumulation and the toxins release from these bacteria damage the gums. The gums become swollen, red and painful (Gingivitis). If gum disease is not controlled early, you are at a risk of losing your tooth.

    * Root Sensitivity

Root sensitivity (commonly termed as tooth sensitivity) is when the roots of the teeth become exposed due to recession of the gums. The roots are very sensitive and respond with pain to reasonably hot or cold foods.

    * Cracked teeth

A painful accidental blow or extreme biting force can cause the tooth fracture which can become a source of intense pain whenever the fractured tooth is even touched.

    * Temporomandibular joint(TMJ) Disorder

TMJ disorder is an inflammatory reaction at the sight of the lodgment of the lower jaw at the skull. Various factors such as Bruxism (Night grinding or teeth grinding), arthritis can cause TMJ disorders.

    * Wisdom tooth eruption or impaction

The eruption of Wisdom tooth often causes pain due to its misalignement. It can become impacted (does not erupt) and require surgical extraction.

    * Fillings:

People who have undergone fillings can get severe toothache suddenly. This might be because of the spread of the decay to the pulp and you will need to undergo root canal treatment for that. It can also occur due to accumulation of fluid with organic debris and bacteria between the filling and your teeth often termed as microleakage in dental jargon.

The non-oral causes include Ear and Sinus infections .

Prevention of tooth pain

There is no magic trick to prevent tooth pain from occurring. All you need to do is maintain a good oral hygiene which you can do by following the 10 Commandments for healthy teeth.

Home remedies for toothpain

There isn’t a fixed time for toothpain to occur. You can’t drive to your dentist at 3 am at night. However, you can surf the net looking for home remedies. Although, these should not be substituted for a visit to the dentist, they can provide temporary relief from the agonizing pain.

I have not tried any of them and do not suggest their use either. They are listed here for informational purposes only

1. Sensodyne Therapy: Works for tooth cavities

   1. Rinse your mouth with warm water.

   2. Put max strength sensodyne toothpaste on the cavity.

   3. You can feel the pain relief after few minutes.

The effect will decrease when you drink water or other liquids after putting the sensodyne.

2. The Whiskey BC Mix: Works for nearly all tooth pains and is quite effective. Note that this can be nasty when you try it.

   1. Add teaspoon of baking soda in a shot of Whiskey.

   2. Dissolve a packet of BC pain relief powder in the above mix.

   3. Swish around the affected tooth for two minutes.

Try this if you have unmanageable tooth pain and you cant get health care right away.

3. Nyquil therapy: Lots of people swear by this fast and effective trick. It works very well indeed and I have quite a few people thanking me for this one.

Take half a teaspoon of Nyquil or Kroger Nitetime (cold/flu syrups) and swish around the affected area.

Other

Try sucking at a clove or put clove oil on the affected tooth.

Place a raw piece of onion on the affected tooth.

Treatment for Tooth Pain

The treatments for tooth pain vary greatly. They treat the actual cause of your tooth pain. For example

If you have tooth decay, you will have to undergo a filling procedure.

If the tooth decay has reached your pulp, you would have to undergo a RCT procedure.

If you have impacted Wisdom tooth, they need to be extracted.

Your dentist will determine the best treatment option for you after examining you.

How long should the Numbness and tingling remains after dental anathesia?

Many patients feels discomfort and even a little fear when the anesthesia remains for hours after extraction or root canal. Normally the numbness will remain for 2-4 hours in lower teeth and 1-2 hours in upper teeth. Some times the tingling may remains a little longer if the case needs more than one injection.

General speaking if the numbness remained for more than 6-8 hours you should call your your dentist although in the vast majority of cases it will heal shortly. If the tingling remained more than 12 hours you should see your dentist immediately specially if the extraction is on the lower jaw.

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Some times during lower wisdom surgical extraction the nerve may get pressed a little which may cause temporary nerve injury or even complete nerve cutting in rare cases which can be the cause of prolonged tingling.  But generally this type of complication is not common in any extraction except the lower wisdom surgical extraction and still very rare even with wisdom extraction.

In these cases you should see your dentist immediately to treat the case before the temporary damage becomes permanent.

Does dental care prevent heart attacks?

How can teeth, a part of the body so relatively insignificant, that it can even be pulled out almost at will, have an effect on one of the most important and almost irreplaceable body parts – the heart?

For decades, most scientists and reflexology practitioners have argued how each part of your body is connected to others, and how proper treatment of some of the most unnoticed body parts can have huge benefits on the most invaluable ones. Being one of the most complex systems in the world it is invariable that there are little known links within the body.

This is true when it comes to teeth as well. Professor Howard Jenkinson of the Bristol University, along with the Royal College of Surgeons, has identified the link between poor dental health and heart disease through their studies.

The risks of poor dental care

The mouth has almost 700 different types of bacteria living in it. Some bacteria are the harmful kind. But, there are harmless bacteria as well. These bacteria help in breaking down food particles. Every time you eat, drink or even open your mouth the numbers of bacteria in your mouth increase. Through regular brushing and proper dental care the bacteria are kept under control.

However, improper dental care can result in gum infections, gingivitis and similar oral diseases. This causes the harmful bacteria to enter the blood stream. Streptococcus gordonii and Streptococcus sanguinis are some of the bacteria causing oral infections. Such bacteria have been identified to be factors resulting in heart disease.


How to prevent heart disease

It has been the case that certain antibiotics do not seem to work against heart disease. It is possible that oral bacteria could be the reason. Professor Jenkinson and Dr Steve Kerringan are working to find a solution to this. Until such time, prevention of oral diseases and maintaining proper dental hygiene and care is the best possible method in protecting yourself.

Regular brushing, especially after meals, is the main method of keeping mouth disease at bay. Protection can be further enhanced by the use of dental care products such as anti-bacterial sprays and mouthwash. This will help to prevent against oral bacterial diseases. In turn, this would also protect against one of the causes of heart attacks.

Dental Implant: The Best Remedy For Tooth Loss

Tooth loss, in most people, is associated to a number of factors. Some of these factors that cause tooth loss are tooth decay, gum disease or periodontal disease, injury and aging. Research done on a large group of adults, to study the increase in the number of people with one or more teeth missing revealed that more than half the group fell in this category.

Most of those with missing teeth did not bother to get a tooth replacement done because of not understanding the underlying problem of a missing tooth. Just twenty five percent were aware of the fact that the loss of a tooth could wear out the bones of the jaw causing a change in structure of the jaw line.

Consequences Of A Single Tooth Loss

Studies show that a single tooth loss could have many repercussions some of which are mentioned below:

    * There would be a structural change in the jaw
    * Other teeth would get relocated as even a single gap among the teeth would cause the other teeth to shift.
    * There would be a change in the contour of the face; the shape of the face.
    * There would be a drooping, hollow look to the jaw which is not appealing to the eye.
    * This look would, in the long run, lower one’s self esteem and have a bearing on his eating behavior.
    * Biting and chewing certain types of food would be a problem, like hard fruits and fibrous vegetables, causing one to miss out a person’s normal staple diet.
    * There is a tendency, at such times, to eat fatty foods that are soft and easily
      chewable and to avoid hard foods that are necessary or required for the body. This leads to increase in extra weight, which is a sign of impending illnesses such as those dealing with the heart and diabetes.


Treatment Of Tooth Loss:

There are many ways to treat tooth loss, the most effective of which is dental implant. Dental implant is an alternate method to replace a missing tooth. Here an artificial ‘tooth root’ is used. These tooth roots are the basis for the artificial teeth that are either permanently fixed or can be removed. They are made to look similar to natural teeth.

Dental implant is the most preferred treatment for tooth loss for a single tooth or for more than one tooth. This is because it has shown a 98 percent success rate. Medical tests show that dental implant is most successful treatment as a replacement for lost teeth. Secondly, this surgical method allows for minimum bone loss that is why it is favored over other forms of treatment.

Dental implant is the safest, most accurate type of surgery conducted to replace a missing tooth. A dentist, experienced in this surgical procedure, would help to get the accuracy and also show positive results. So if you are planning on doing a dental implant it would be advisable to search out an experienced dentist to avoid any possibility of the implant going wrong.

Wisdom teeth symptoms

Many patients suffering from impacted wisdom molars. Molar wisdoms are the last molars in each arch side if you didn’t extracted any molars wisdom should be after the LAST  two permanent molars. Many patients ask if the wisdoms or 3rd molars are erupted in their mouth and i will give you a simple way to know, If you can count three large molars in the end of jaw side then it is erupted if you only find two large molars then it is not erupted. I use the word large molars to distinguish between the small premolars that is located just after the canines and the larger molars that present near the end of the jaw .
So why wisdoms get impacted?

There is many theories explaining this phenomena but it will be overkill to go deep here so we will keep the explanation simple a possible. The wisdoms impacted simply because there is no jaw enough space for them to erupt . This space problem is explained in many ways some authors say that the western soft cooked food is not grinding the teeth from its sides, this grinding was enough to offer space for the wisdoms. Others saying that if the jaw size is small (inherited from one parent ) and the teeth sizes are large (inherited from the other parent  ) this may cause this problem. Any way it just happened

Impaction can be full when the molar is completely under jaw gums or partially  impacted if a small part of it is out in the mouth. The symptoms vary according to the impaction type.
Symptoms of impacted 3rd molars or wisdoms:

Lets say that most of people won’t have any problems with their wisdoms they just erupt in place with no problems and even you won’t notice it. Sometimes the 3rd molars are impacted and not erupted and also not causing any problems and may still silent for years.

some times impacted wisdoms start to make troubles and symptoms this problems includes


1- Pain : Pain that is related to the end of the jaw or even sometimes not localized and may extend to the whole face side. The pain type change according to the the case, presence of infection and impaction type .


2-Gums swelling, tenderness and redness :

Some times especially in partial impaction  Gums around the area become swollen , red ,tender and hot as a result of infection. Some times in partially impaction a small gum piece (flap) remain over the molar crown and the opposing molar if present bite on this flap causing severe pain on chewing and more inflammation.


3-Face swelling:
Some times the inflammation spread and cause swelling in the side of impacted wisdom even the swelling may extend to the eyes which become almost closed(don’t panic we see this every day, but you should see your dentist in the moment) .


4-Food impaction or wedging:
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Some times especially in partial impaction when the wisdom is erupt in a anterior angulation food may become impacted between impacted 3rd & second molar which may cause severe pain and gum pocket.


5-Fever :
In some severe cases of infection the body temperature may raise as a reaction to infection.


6-Bad breath and bad taste :
Impacted food, pus formation and some anaerobic bacterial products can cause a salty bad taste and also the breath smell may change.


7-sometimes pus or blood oozing from gums.


8-Inability to open the mouth widely:

Muscles that is responsible of mouth opining lies close to the end of the jaw so any infection in this area can cause muscle stiffness.


9-lymph node tenderness and pain with swallowing food:
The lymph nodes under the lower jaw react to infection and become enlarged and tender which may cause pain with swallowing.


After all once you feel any of the previous symptoms you should visit your dentist quickly to start the treatment early because if you delay the infection may become very annoying and dangerous. till you go to your dentist you may take over the counter pain killers to decrease pain also peroxide mouth wash may help in removal of impacted food  and killing anaerobic bacteria that cause the infection.