Toothache is considered one of the most severe and unpleasant. It usually occurs suddenly when a person does not expect it. If this happens during the daytime, then you should immediately contact your dentist. But if this happened at night or on the road, then additional drugs and methods will be needed to help eliminate the pain and numb the tooth.
The causes of acute toothache can be different. This is an inflammatory process in the pulp cavity of the tooth and exposure of the dental nerve.
Possible causes of acute toothache
It is worth remembering the most common reasons:
- Caries. Bacteria destroy the surface of the tooth, resulting in a tooth reaction and discomfort when eating, eating sweets, or cold foods.
- Pulpitis. This is an inflammatory process that appears due to the fact that the patient did not treat caries in time. Pulpitis provokes acute toothache, which intensifies when drinking hot, cold drinks or food.
- Periodontitis. This is inflammation that occurs as a result of infection. Toothache has a pulsating form. It intensifies when mechanical stress is applied to the tooth.
- Periostitis. This is a special inflammation, it is accompanied by swelling of the gums. Afterwards, swelling and pain increase. Sometimes with periostitis, the upper jaw swells and the temperature rises. A pulsating toothache can be felt in the ears, eyes, and temples.
Products that should NOT be used:
1. Vodka rinses.
We will have to upset the men who rinse their mouths with vodka and claim that it helps. Alas, neither external nor internal treatment will relieve you of toothache. Although if you overdo it with the amount of “medicine”, it will dull the pain, but subsequently the vessels will dilate and all inflammatory reactions will only intensify. In addition, as a result of such treatment, a burn and ulcer of the mucous membrane is possible, as a result of which the picture of the inflammatory process will be blurred.
2. Smoking.
It is a common belief that smoking a cigarette dulls pain. For smokers, in principle, a cigarette is a distracting object. Just like alcohol, it has an adverse effect: nicotine constricts blood vessels and in the area where inflammation should be actively fought, the flow of necessary substances is suspended.
3. Warm compresses.
It is not recommended to apply heat to all inflammatory processes, as this only intensifies them.
4.Antibiotics.
You cannot start self-medicating with antibiotics, even if the doctor once prescribed “exactly the same” ones, since in the process of an incorrect course of treatment microbes that are very resistant to drugs can form.
Conclusion: if you dull the pain of a tooth affected by caries, pulpitis or periodontitis and put off visiting the dentist, then very soon you will have to resort to more expensive and complex forms of treatment.
Interviewed by Anna Sitnik
What should not be done in case of acute toothache?
It is important to help yourself without creating serious complications. It is important to know what you are prohibited from doing when you have an acute toothache:
- do not heat the tooth or cheek. Warm compresses stimulate blood flow to the area where the problem is. Because of this, an entire row of teeth can be damaged. It is better to apply ice for a short time;
- avoid bed rest. It is better to endure toothache on your feet or take a half-sitting position. Then the patient will be more comfortable. When a person is horizontal, the blood flow to the tooth increases. The nerve endings in that place are already irritated, so in addition the pressure also increases, the pain intensifies. In case of night pain, it is better to sleep on high pillows.
What first aid should be given for night toothache?
How can you relieve toothache at night if it does not subside? Dentists recommend immediately taking certain actions:
- Taking fast-acting painkillers.
- Rinsing the mouth with herbal compositions.
- Use of traditional folk remedies.
The first method means the effective use of the most common drugs. You should always have a sufficient quantity of Analgin, Pentalgin, and Aspirin tablets in your home medicine cabinet. Paracetamol. These products are affordable and have a quick positive effect. For young patients suffering from night toothache, it is recommended to use Ibuprofen or its analogues.
It is recommended to soften solid preparations to a powder state. Place a small amount on the affected area. And try to leave the tooth with the applied medication for at least half an hour.
Tooth pain at night is excellently eliminated with various herbal formulations. Mint, lemon balm, sage, oak bark, calendula, and chamomile perfectly soothe aching pain. It is recommended to prepare a solution yourself from dried herbs and flowers or use a ready-made tincture. Several mouth rinses will help soothe pain and stop its further development.
Many folk tips also help with toothache at night. They have been tested by centuries of practice and always provide effective assistance.
A true and proven method is to place a piece of salted lard on the sore part of the gum. This is a completely harmless, and also edible, method.
A cotton ball soaked in alcohol acts as an anesthetic on the aching tooth.
Applying ice to the outside of your cheek can help dull annoying nighttime pain symptoms.
A warm aqueous solution of table salt has an excellent effect on an inflamed tooth.
Ways to get rid of acute toothache
Of course, with acute pain you should immediately go to the doctor, but if at a particular moment this is not possible, then it is worth remembering the main recommendations:
- Use of painkillers. Pharmacies sell many medications that have analgesic properties. The most popular are “Nurofen”, “Ketorol”, “Analgin”, etc. But before taking these drugs, it is important to carefully read the instructions. If there are contraindications, it is worth replacing the product with another one.
- Application of traditional methods. You can rinse your tooth with a baking soda solution. Pour warm water into a glass, add 1 tsp. soda and stir. You can add a few drops of iodine there (if you are not allergic). You can also use herbal infusions. They will help relieve dull throbbing pain. To temporarily relieve toothache, you should take St. John's wort, eucalyptus, oak bark, chamomile or sage. Dry tea is poured into a glass, poured with boiling water, and stirred. This drink should steep for 30 minutes. Afterwards, you should strain the infusion and you can rinse your mouth. But it is important to remember that the infusion should not be hot, but warm. To enhance the effect of rinsing, you can place cotton wool soaked in the infusion directly on the gum.
But temporary relief does not mean that you don’t need to go to the dentist! As soon as such an opportunity arises, you need to immediately make an appointment with a dentist, explain the situation and treat the aching tooth. So that this doesn't happen again!
Myths about teeth
Myths about teeth brushing and whitening
1. Teeth can be whitened with a special toothpaste. This is wrong . Bleaching pastes containing abrasive materials can only remove staining from nicotine or food. Such toothpastes will not be able to make teeth whiter than they were intended by nature. Real teeth whitening is done only in dental clinics , using hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide compounds.
2. To make your teeth whiter, you need to brush them with baking soda. In fact, soda has a very high abrasiveness, much higher than permissible. Therefore, brushing your teeth with soda will cause it to scratch and eventually remove the enamel of your teeth . Soda is contraindicated for any type of periodontitis.
3. Brushing your teeth is generally harmful, as it wears away the enamel. If you do not brush your teeth , soft plaque forms on them , which first contributes to the development of caries , and then the formation of tartar.
4. Teeth need to be brushed only 2 times a day. It's minimum. The amount of brushing depends on the nature of the food, the amount of plaque and the general condition of the body.
5. Brushing your teeth should be done after breakfast. Yes, you really need to brush your teeth after eating. But in the morning it is better to brush your teeth before eating , immediately after waking up - this prevents the bacteria that formed in the oral cavity overnight from developing and prevents bacteria from entering the stomach during meals.
Myths about toothache
6. If you have a toothache, apply cotton wool with alcohol or crushed aspirin to the tooth. It is very dangerous. This will not make a sick tooth feel any better, but if held for a long time, it will burn the mouth.
7. For toothache, you need to apply garlic to your wrist. This is how a certain group of sectarians were treated. Their faith in this method helped them. You can try it too.
8. If your teeth don’t hurt, then you don’t need to go to the dentist. As a rule, diseases of the oral cavity initially occur painlessly . In addition, in the early stages the disease is much easier to cure. Therefore, you must visit the dentist twice a year.
9. Any visit to the dentist is scary and painful. This is wrong. Dentistry today means modern treatment methods, clinics are equipped with silent devices and a variety of painkillers.
Myths about bite correction and braces
10. You can correct your bite at any age. This is only true if one or two teeth need to be corrected . If the bite is disturbed due to the characteristics of the maxillofacial apparatus, then each specific case should be discussed with an orthodontist.
11. The bite should be corrected after replacing all baby teeth with molars. It is better to visit an orthodontist when the child is three years old. If a child sucks a finger or pacifier for a long time, it is better to visit an orthodontist before the age of three. This will prevent the development of malocclusions and premature removal of baby teeth.
12. Correcting a child’s bite is expensive. There is some truth. The services of an orthodontist are not cheap. But if we take into account that an incorrect bite leads to a violation of the chewing function, therefore, disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, diseases of the teeth and gums, then by correcting an incorrect bite as early as possible, it will be possible to get by with small losses of money.
13. It takes a long time to get used to braces. This is wrong. Getting used to it lasts one to two weeks. In the first days after installation, pressure is felt on the teeth. Subsequently, braces do not interfere even when playing wind instruments.
14. Braces damage tooth enamel. Between the bracket and the tooth there is a special material that releases fluoride and strengthens the enamel. Tooth enamel can be worsened by insufficient hygiene when wearing braces or eating foods prohibited by the orthodontist. It is necessary to follow all the doctor’s recommendations and take care of your teeth more carefully than before installing braces.
15. Wearing braces is not attractive. It is much uglier to have uneven teeth. And you can choose braces to suit every taste - silver, sapphire, ceramic, plastic, lingual.
Myths about prosthetics and implantation
16. When installing a crown on a tooth, the nerve must be removed. Not anymore. Modern technologies in dentistry make it possible to treat a tooth and prepare it for prosthetics without resorting to nerve removal. When processing a tooth, a minimal amount of its tissue is removed, and after grinding the tooth is coated with a special agent that reduces its sensitivity.
17. Gold never causes allergies in the oral cavity. It is a myth. Everything is very individual . Some people may experience inflammation where gold crowns touch the oral mucosa.
18. It is not at all necessary to place an implant if there is no tooth. On the contrary, it is very necessary. When a tooth is missing, the bone tissue of the jaw deteriorates , pits and cavities form, the load on the remaining teeth increases, but the quality of chewing suffers, and this is fraught with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. Well, in the end, a person with a full row of teeth has a more aesthetic appearance.
Myths about tooth extraction
19. It is cheaper to remove a diseased tooth than to treat it. It depends on situation. If there are no direct indications for tooth extraction, it must be preserved and cured. The tooth extraction itself can indeed be much cheaper, but as we have already stated above, there should not be empty spaces in the mouth. But dental implantation will still cost more than treating your own tooth.
20. A diseased tooth must be treated until the last minute and under no circumstances should it be removed. Of course, tooth extraction is far from the best option, but a diseased tooth is a source of infection , which also adversely affects the health of the body. Everything is very individual. There are cases when a seemingly non-viable tooth can be cured, but a seemingly healthy tooth has to be removed.
21. After tooth extraction, the oral cavity must be thoroughly disinfected. This is true, but you must not overdo it so as not to wash the blood clot out of the wound. It helps in better healing. So it’s better not to touch this place for 2-3 days.
Myths about treating children
22. Any dentist, not necessarily a pediatric dentist, can treat a child’s teeth. Treatment methods for children's and adult teeth are different. This is due to the presence of baby teeth in children and the resorption of their roots. And it is the pediatric dentist who is more qualified to possess this information. In addition, the cost of pediatric dentistry is cheaper.
23. It is necessary for the child to be afraid of dentists, then he will take better care of his teeth. There is a chance that the child will brush his teeth well often, but psychological fear of dental treatment will be more of an enemy than a helper . Because you will still have to treat your teeth sooner or later in life. It is better to visit the dentist with your child 2 times a year so that he gets used to the fact that this procedure is not scary, but necessary.
24. There is no need to treat baby teeth; they will fall out anyway. This is a very harmful misconception for children's health. Untreated baby teeth lead to problems with molars. Extracted baby teeth disrupt the bite prematurely.
25. Sweets are bad for your teeth. Not all sweets. Chocolate, for example, contains cocoa beans, which have an antimicrobial effect and protect teeth from caries. But this does not mean that you should not brush your teeth after eating chocolate or consume it in moderation. It is better to drink carbonated drinks through a straw to reduce the contact of the liquid with the enamel of the teeth.
Other myths
26. Traumatic periodontitis can occur only after an injury (bruise, blow).
The most common causes of this disease are not injuries, but, for example, regular pressure on the teeth from the mouthpiece of a smoking pipe or musical instrument. It’s also a good idea to get rid of bad habits - biting threads, pressing on a tooth with a pencil or pen, shelling seeds, etc.
27. Trigeminal neuralgia occurs during a cold. No. Trigeminal neuralgia is viral in nature and manifests itself as herpetic rashes on the skin of the face, although a cold provokes this disease. The first thing to do at the first signs of neuralgia is to get rid of the virus, i.e. if the disease becomes chronic, a post-herpetic pain phenomenon may develop, and it will have to be treated with anticonvulsants.
If your tooth hurts, you need to go to the doctor
Stitching and cutting toothache is a symptom of dental disease. They may be caused by the following reasons:
- poor oral hygiene;
- vitamin deficiency;
- decreased immunity;
- jaw injuries;
- incorrect position of teeth.
Only a dentist can make the correct diagnosis and prescribe an effective solution. Therefore, the surest way to deal with toothache is to visit a specialist as soon as possible. If you are experiencing similar pain right now, call 8 (495) 033-00-63 or fill out the online registration form. Tell the administrators about the pain that is bothering you, and they will find the next time for you to see a dentist.
