Toothaches are a pain you experience in or around your tooth. In most cases, tooth pain indicates something is wrong with your tooth or gums. However, in some cases, you may experience referred tooth pain caused by problems elsewhere in your body.
Severe toothaches are best not ignored because toothaches resulting from tooth decay can worsen when left untreated. Although tooth pain is not life-threatening, it can be a sign of severe conditions requiring prompt treatment in many cases.
How Do Toothaches Feel?
Tooth pain can differ from mild to severe, which may remain constant or intermittent. You might experience throbbing pain or swelling in and around your tooth and gums, fever, sharp pain when touching your tooth or biting, painful sensitivity in the tooth as a response to hot or cold foods and beverages, and a burning or shock-like pain which is unusual.
Why Is Dental Pain so Bad?
If you have severe dental pain, it likely indicates that you might have untreated tooth decay extending to the soft center of your tooth, the dental pulp. When you leave the condition untreated, you can develop a dental abscess, a life-threatening situation. Therefore, you must see the dentist near you immediately if you think you have a dental abscess to prevent the infection from spreading to your brain.
Dental abscesses require eradication of the infection within your tooth by the fearsome root canal therapy and restoration of the tooth with a dental crown.
An impacted tooth can also cause tooth pain, especially if you have your third molar and wisdom tooth stuck in the gum tissue or bone. An impacted wisdom tooth causing tooth pain in Richmond requires surgical removal from the dentist or an oral surgeon to prevent additional infections like tooth decay and gum disease from spreading into your mouth.
Impacted wisdom teeth and severe decay in a tooth resulting in dental pulp infections generally cause extreme pain to make you rush to your dentist seeking a remedy for the toothache.
Familiar Causes of Referred Toothaches
Infections in your sinus cavity can cause your sinuses to become inflamed, resulting in a condition called sinusitis. The roots of your upper teeth are close to your sinuses, and sinusitis causes pain in your upper teeth.
Lung cancer and heart disease are also responsible for tooth pain. In some cases, tooth pain is a warning sign of an impending heart attack. Heart and lung disease can cause tooth because of the location of your vagus nerve. The nerve extends from your brain to different organs of your body, including the heart and lungs, and passes through the jaw.
Unfamiliar Causes of Referred Tooth Pain
Trigeminal and occipital neuralgia are painful neurological conditions causing your trigeminal and occipital nerve to become inflamed or irritated. These nerves serve your face, teeth, and skull. You might feel the pain emanating from your teeth when the nerves become inflamed.
Why Does Tooth Pain Come and Go?
If you have an untreated cavity where the bacteria has got to the dental pulp, you might experience intermittent tooth pain with the discomfort coming and going to make you feel you are getting better. It might encourage you to ignore seeking treatment only until the toothache returns with more severity. Instead of enduring the pain must understand tooth pain requires treatment from a dentist. You can rely on home remedies for temporary relief while waiting for your dentist’s appointment.
The dentist will perform a physical exam of the tooth, take x-rays to detect tooth decay or any other problems, and provide painkillers and antibiotics to treat the infection. If tooth decay is causing tooth pain near you, the dentist removes the rot with a drill and fills the hollow space with fillers. Impacted wisdom teeth require surgical removal. However, if your dentist cannot find the cause of the tooth pain, they will likely refer you to a doctor or specialist for further treatment.
If dentists suspect you have a heart attack, they will refer you to an emergency department or a doctor for additional testing if they suspect heart or lung disease.
Tooth pain minor or significant needs treatment from a medical professional or a dentist for relief from the discomfort and to prevent severe complications. If you think you have a minor toothache, please schedule an appointment with Charm Dental — Richmond to get it treated as soon as possible.
