As the saying goes, “Toothache is not a disease, it hurts really terribly”. Some people think about taking some medicine to solve the symptoms of toothache. I would like to remind everyone here that when a toothache occurs, you must go to see the doctors. Oral medicine can only treat the symptoms but not the basic cause. Only treating the cause of the toothache is the basic method.
Toothache is the most obvious symptom of various dental diseases. There are many reasons for toothache. The 6 major toothache causes are as following.
1. Dental caries. Commonly known as “worm tooth” or “tooth decay”.
Caries can occur regardless of deciduous teeth or permanent teeth. Dental caries can cause loss of chewing ability. In severe cases, complications such as pulpitis, periodontal abscess, and jaw osteomyelitis can occur, which endangers the health of the whole body.
Patients at the initial stage of dental caries do not feel pain. When the cavities develop to the dentin, pain (usually soreness) occurs when they encounter cold, hot, sour, salty, and sweet foods. If the cavity is deep, close to the pulp (dental nerve) or decayed into the pulp, the above-mentioned irritation can cause unbearable soreness. As the cavity continues to expand, the tooth will fall off piece by piece, leaving only the root of the tooth remaining. Therefore, it should be checked regularly, and caries should be filled in time if found.
2. Acute pulpitis
Pulpitis is commonly known as dental neuralgia, says this cosmetic dentist in San Diego. It is mostly caused by the infection of dental caries that develops into the pulp cavity. It is the main cause of severe toothache.
The characteristic of pain is spontaneous, and the pain is aggravated when encountering stimuli such as cold and heat, and the pain can be more serious when sleeping at night. The pain is paroxysmal at first, that is, the pain will rest for a while, and then it will become continuous pain. The pain can also be reflected to the head, ears, and neck. When the pulp becomes suppurated in the later stage, the pain is alleviated with cold water or cold air in the mouth. If not treated in time, pulpitis can develop into apical abscess, or even jaw osteomyelitis, and it will be difficult to preserve the tooth.
3. Acute wisdom tooth pericoronitis
Wisdom tooth pericoronitis usually occurs in the case of poor oral hygiene and reduced body resistance. Lower wisdom teeth are more likely to occur than upper wisdom teeth. patients felt painful gums at the onset of the disease, and the wisdom teeth of the mandible were close to the pharyngeal part, which may cause sore throat and difficulty in opening the mouth, which may affect speech and eating. In severe cases, it may be accompanied by high fever, facial swelling, and swollen submandibular lymph nodes.
Mainly due to the incorrect position of the third molars, part of the crown of the tooth is covered with gums, and food impact is often caused, which can easily cause bacterial infection and inflammation, resulting in red and swollen gums, persistent pain, sometimes accompanied by sore throat and mouth opened is difficult. Pericoronitis is the inflammation around the crown of the wisdom tooth. It should be checked by a dentist and removed early.
4. Wedge-shaped defect of tooth neck
Due to receding gums and too hard toothbrush bristles, the tooth enamel is very thin on the part of the tooth surface close to the gums, and the enamel is often abraded due to the friction of the bristles when brushing the teeth. The exposed dentin is softer and is ground into deeper depressions by the bristles , eat cold and hot ones will feel sore. In this case, teeth should be filled in time.
5. Severe enamel wear
Tooth enamel is commonly known as enamel. Because teeth are responsible for the function of chewing food for a long time, the outermost layer of enamel is gradually worn away, exposing the second layer of dentin. Because of the distribution of nerve endings in the dentin, it is exposed to cold, heat or mechanical, you can feel sore.
6. Acute periodontitis.
The symptoms are severe pain, persistent throbbing pain, the teeth cannot be chewed, the aching tooth seems to grow a little bit longer than other teeth, and there is a sensation of floating teeth.
There are also some uncommon causes of toothache, such as teeth not erupting, pressing on nearby teeth; dental pulp with calculus, crown cracking, etc. In addition, certain special populations may also have toothaches, such as dental pulp congestion in hypertensive patients, and inflammation and necrosis of dental pulp vessels in diabetic patients. Although no matter what the cause of toothache is, it must be treated at an early stage under the guidance of a doctor.
