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.

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:
Before judgement you have to collect knowledge, Get a closer look to Islam.

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.