Pain when brushing your teeth is common. And often it does not depend on what kind of brush you use - manual or modern electric. In this article we will tell you why teeth can hurt during daily hygiene procedures and what needs to be done in such a situation.
In this article
- It hurts to brush your teeth - what could this mean?
- Why does it hurt to brush healthy teeth if you have hypersensitivity?
- What to do if brushing your teeth hurts?
Bleeding gums and other symptoms
Bleeding should already be considered the main symptom of gum disease, but this phenomenon is also often accompanied by such manifestations as:
- bright red gums and swelling
- pain when eating and when touched
- specific smell and altered taste
- plaque at the edge of the gums
- high concentration of saliva
Any of these symptoms are a good reason to visit your doctor's office. You should also remember: bleeding gums often develop against the background of poor oral hygiene and reduced immunity. Read more about this in a separate article.
How to strengthen enamel at home
If your teeth periodically hurt while brushing, you can use special toothpastes labeled “for sensitive enamel.” It contains a lot of calcium, fluoride compounds, sea minerals and salt. Well-known brands offer such products:
- MEXIDOLden;
- Oral-B Sensitive Original;
- Sensodyne with zinc;
- Lacalut Extra Sensitive.
A positive effect occurs after the first days of use. As a supplement, rinses with herbal decoctions are chosen: oak bark destroys bacteria, sage and chamomile relieve inflammation, eucalyptus fights pain.
If your enamel is too sensitive, you should temporarily avoid foods that contain acids: apples, citrus fruits, berries and exotic fruits. Every day you need to consume more dairy dishes, cottage cheese, cheese and protein. The gums can be massaged with your fingers or a toothbrush, adding a few drops of sea buckthorn or tea tree oil
Category Hygiene Published by Mister stomatolog
Why do my gums bleed when brushing my teeth?
Hormonal background
Hormonal changes (mostly affecting pregnant women and teenagers) are one of the many causes of bleeding gums. Dentists note: hormonal changes in the body are accompanied by changes in the chemical composition of saliva, which leads to rapid mineralization of plaque on the teeth.
Lack of vitamins
A deficiency of vitamins C or K also causes blood to appear on the gums. An insufficient amount of vitamin C (especially during seasonal vitamin deficiency, a decrease in general immunity) leads to rapid wear of blood vessels and bleeding gums, and the lack of vitamin K, responsible for blood clotting, depletes the gums and makes them extremely sensitive and loose.
Microflora
Bacteria inhabiting the oral cavity are responsible for the accumulation of dental plaque, which can, over time, with poor hygiene, become tartar, causing inflammation and bleeding.
Changes in the composition of saliva in the body against the background of periodontitis and gingivitis directly affect both the respiratory tract and the normal functioning of the gastrointestinal tract.
What to do if tooth enamel hurts
Sensitivity to external stimuli can be caused by external and internal factors. It is impossible to eliminate the cause of the pain on your own, but you can dull the sensation before going to a specialist. The doctor may prescribe canal cleaning, pulp removal, and therapy with medications, pastes, and solutions. The treatment method is influenced by the reason why the tooth enamel hurts. For temporary correction use:
- pastes to reduce sensitivity;
- anesthetic gels;
- mouth rinse.
Pain is the first sign of a disorder. If you experience discomfort, you should make an appointment with a specialist. Common causes include erasure or damage to the protective layer of disease and inflammation, caries, and increased sensitivity due to an infectious lesion.
As a temporary measure, medications, solutions based on tea tree oil and oak bark are used to rinse the mouth. It is useful to study how coffee affects teeth, how the products are harmful and lead to hyperesthesia.
Causes of gum bleeding when brushing teeth
Why do my gums bleed when brushing my teeth? The causes of bleeding gums can be different, and one of them is mechanical damage. The simplest thing is inept or hasty handling of a toothbrush. The situation can be the most everyday: you are late for work, you decide to reduce the usual time for brushing your teeth, you start aggressively pressing the brush on your teeth - and here is the result: the gum tissue is damaged and bleeding. It's unpleasant, but not fatal. Another reason from the same series is an incorrectly chosen toothbrush: your teeth and gums are sensitive, periodically react sharply to hot or cold, and instead of a brush with soft or medium bristles, you chose one with hard ones. The result: severe bleeding, pain, inflammation and even slight detachment of the gum from the tooth. Therefore, it is important to choose the right brush.
How to eliminate pain after professional teeth cleaning
The procedure itself is quite simple and does not require prior preparation from the patient. The use of ultrasound technology has minimized discomfort when removing plaque and tartar. Often, within a few days, the enamel becomes too sensitive to touch, so your teeth hurt when brushing with a paste or rinsing with water.
Dentists warn that aching sensations can normally be present for several hours after the procedure. To move it easier, you must adhere to the following recommendations:
- during the first 24 hours, avoid foods that can stain the enamel (coffee, tea, beets, carrots, sweet drinks with dyes);
- temporarily avoid foods with coarse fibers to avoid scratching your teeth;
- use special strengthening pastes from medicinal series;
- immediately after the procedure, clean the oral cavity only with a soft brush;
- rinse your mouth with an antiseptic to remove remaining plaque from the tongue and the inside of the cheeks.
With the right approach, the discomfort will completely disappear within 3-4 days. If the pain persists, you should visit the dentist again to rule out inflammation or other complications.
What to do if your gums constantly bleed?
The chronic nature of bleeding gums is an alarm bell for any person. How to treat and what to do in such a situation? Some important tips for preventing and treating bleeding gums.
- Choose the right toothbrush, floss and toothpaste. The toothbrush and floss should not be hard, and the toothpaste should not contain abrasive particles.
- Switch to balanced foods. Lack of vitamins (for example, group B, as well as C, K, B, A and E) and minerals (for example, zinc, calcium) destroys teeth and depletes gums. Eat more solid vegetables, meat, dairy products, citrus fruits and nuts.
- Visit your dentist. Timely professional teeth cleaning by a specialist will help prevent the development of gum diseases such as gingivitis and periodontitis.
- Avoid mouthwashes that contain alcohol. Although alcohol-containing rinses kill most bacteria, they dry out the gums excessively, which only aggravates the course of oral diseases due to bleeding gums.
- Give up bad habits. Smoking and alcohol irritate the mucous membrane in the mouth and worsen gum disease.
Teeth hurt after ultrasonic cleaning: what to do?
Ultrasonic tartar removal is a modern way to get rid of hard deposits that cause infectious diseases of the oral cavity. This is a safe and comfortable procedure that is recommended for everyone, even pregnant women. But there is an exception to the rule - these are patients with thin damaged enamel, the ultrasound effect on which can cause pain both during and after sanitation
The fact is that tooth sensitivity may increase after ultrasonic cleaning. Therefore, before going for this procedure, you need to consult a dentist.
What is ultrasonic cleaning
Ultrasonic cleaning uses special dental equipment - an ultrasonic scaler. The principle of its operation is to generate ultrasonic waves, which, when they hit the surface of a tooth, soften plaque of varying degrees of density and remove it. In order to achieve maximum effect, the amplitude and frequency of the waves are adjusted individually for each patient. After treatment, the tooth surface becomes smooth and shiny, and also brightens by 1-2 tones.
Why can teeth hurt after ultrasonic cleaning?
If a patient’s teeth hurt after ultrasonic cleaning, this can be caused by two reasons. First of all, increased sensitivity of teeth associated with defects or damage to the enamel. Therefore, before using this service, you should strengthen your tooth enamel with fluoride-containing products and carry out a deep fluoridation procedure in a dental clinic. The second cause of pain after ultrasonic cleaning is inflammatory diseases of the oral cavity: periodontal disease, gingivitis, caries and others. Scaling may be necessary to treat these conditions. In this case, to relieve the patient from pain during the procedure, dentists use local anesthesia. The doctor will also prescribe painkillers and anti-inflammatory medications to take after ultrasonic cleaning.
What to do if your teeth hurt after ultrasonic cleaning
You can relieve pain after ultrasonic teeth cleaning at home. Applications with antimicrobial anti-inflammatory drugs (for example, Metrogil-denta, Traumeel S and others) will help relieve inflammation, relieve pain, and relieve swelling of the soft tissues of the oral cavity. If the neck of the tooth is particularly sensitive, toothpastes containing fluoride and herbal rinses should be used to care for the oral cavity. If a set of home hygiene procedures does not help relieve pain and/or it intensifies, then you need to visit a dental clinic, where specialists will select adequate treatment.
Expert opinion
Strict adherence to your dentist’s recommendations for oral care will help you avoid pain after ultrasonic tartar removal. Doctors advise brushing your teeth every time after eating on the first day after the procedure, using a soft brush and toothpaste for sensitive teeth.
It is also necessary for the first time to avoid eating cold, hot, spicy and sour foods, which have an aggressive effect on sensitive enamel.
Agree, these are quite simple and feasible medical prescriptions! If they are followed, removing tartar with ultrasound will be extremely comfortable - after all, this is the safest and most painless way to get rid of tartar used in modern dentistry.
Bleeding when brushing teeth in pregnant women
Reduced immunity
Bleeding gums in expectant mothers often occur when hormonal levels change. This leads to an inevitable decline in immunity (both general and local - in the oral cavity) and an imbalance in the acid-base balance, which provokes the growth of bacteria and accelerates the accumulation of plaque. All together causes inflammation, pain when brushing teeth and bleeding.
Poor hygiene
During pregnancy, gums bleed when brushing your teeth, also due to poor oral hygiene, or even lack thereof, as a result of which harmful bacteria multiply on the gums, contributing to the formation of plaque on the teeth. Hence inflammation, redness, pain - and, as a result, gingivitis, which over time can develop into a much more serious form - periodontitis.
Lack of calcium
Pregnancy is a huge burden on the female body. Calcium deficiency in an organism experiencing severe stress leads to the development of gingivitis, therefore, in the treatment of bleeding gums during pregnancy, an integrated approach is important: proper nutrition, vitamins and healthy sleep.
Important!
Choose the right brush and don’t forget that you need to change it every 3 months. Remember: a toothbrush is a purely individual thing, no one but you should use it. Also rinse the brush thoroughly after each use.
It hurts to brush your teeth - what could this mean?
Normally, healthy teeth do not hurt when brushing, and in general the oral care procedure does not cause discomfort. If pain does occur, you should definitely consult a doctor to determine the cause.
Why does pain occur?
- Caries, pulpitis and other dental diseases.
If you have untreated teeth in your mouth, they are likely to bother you when brushing. The closer the lesion is to the dental nerve, the more acute the pain. The only way to help in this case is to urgently consult a dentist and treat the aching tooth.
- Injury.
After a fall or impact, tooth enamel may be chipped and the crown portion may be damaged. Depending on the extent of the damage, pain may be constant or occur only upon contact with the tooth - for example, when brushing with a toothbrush. After any injury where teeth may have been damaged, a visit to the dentist is mandatory. If treatment is not started in time, a serious inflammatory process may develop.
- Exposing the neck of the tooth.
The neck is the area of the tooth where the crown portion meets the root. Normally, it is hidden under the gum. With inflammatory diseases of the gums, the neck is exposed, and any touch to the dentin in this area causes acute pain.
- Periodontitis.
With this disease, the gums and other tissues that support the tooth become inflamed. The disease is accompanied by ongoing pain, which usually intensifies when touched.
These are just a few of the reasons that can cause tooth pain when brushing. All of them are pathological and require professional dental treatment. In most cases, after proper therapy, the pain stops and brushing your teeth ceases to cause any discomfort.