What to do if your tooth hurts at night? Causes of night pain

Why do teeth hurt mostly at night and not during the day? This question interests a lot of people. Quite often, patients complain that the pain intensifies mainly at night. There are diseases that lead to the development of such ailments. Toothache develops due to the fact that the oral cavity contains a large number of nerve fibers, which become inflamed under the influence of various factors.

Common Causes of Pain

Experts identify the following diseases that lead to the development of toothache:

• Caries. The development of caries leads to damage to tooth enamel and dentin. In the resulting carious cavity, pathogenic microorganisms accumulate and rapidly multiply. When caries reaches a complicated stage, harmful bacteria practically reach the pulp, which is penetrated by nerve fibers. Pain syndrome occurs under the influence of irritating factors.
• Pulpitis. At this stage, damage to the pulp occurs, an inflammatory process develops in it, which spreads to all nerve endings. Painful sensations can occur without any external signs of disease.
• Periodontitis. With this disease, the inflammatory process develops in the tissues surrounding the tooth.
• Flux. This complication appears in the absence of timely treatment of pulpitis. The danger is that the developed inflammatory process spreads to the jaw and periosteum.
• Non-carious lesions of the enamel and hard layers of teeth. They arise as a result of mechanical damage to the tooth, resulting in destruction of the enamel. The main cause of pain with such a lesion is the same processes that occur during diseases.
• After the tooth filling procedure. When filling is performed incorrectly, when the specialist performs the manipulations incorrectly or does not follow the correct procedure, the patient may experience unpleasant pain, which intensifies mainly at night.
• After tooth extraction. Painful sensations that worsen at night may develop after tooth extraction.

Why does a tooth ache under a filling?

The filling, placed several years ago (6-7), could be pressed through and deteriorate under the influence of external factors. The tooth will hurt if the pulp is alive and the position of the filling is disturbed. Pain also occurs in the following cases:

• Pain after a short period of time after seeing a doctor is most likely a medical error, for example, the canal was not cleaned well enough, there is still an infection inside, an instrument broke during the procedure;
• Pain after a long time after seeing a doctor is a violation of the seal of the old filling.

In any case, you cannot get rid of such an illness on your own. Contact your dentist in a timely manner so as not to start an inflammatory pathological process.

Physiological processes

The most common factors that cause pain at night are physiological. Most often, this phenomenon is caused by a horizontal position taken during rest. In this position, blood flows intensely to the head, brain and jaws, which increases pressure on the inflamed tissues and nerve endings of the teeth. It should be noted that this process is not typical for all dental diseases. The most common cause of acute and severe toothache at night is pulpitis. At this time of day, excessive pressure forms in the inflamed pulp due to increased blood flow, and bundles of nerve fibers begin to send active signals to the central nervous system. Excruciating pain, mainly at night, can also occur with periodontitis and periodontitis.

Characteristic features of unilateral dentalgia

A sharp toothache, for example, on the left side can act as a symptom of a heart attack. If it is aching in nature, there is a high probability of trigeminal neuralgia. In these situations, self-medication is strictly prohibited due to the risk of complications. Therefore, at the first symptoms of dentalgia, you should consult a doctor.

Unilateral toothache usually occurs suddenly. It has a widespread course, when all dental units of both jaws are affected. It is also highly intense.

The pathological process can be provoked by inflammatory tissue pathologies, diseases of the vascular, nervous or cardiac systems. In most cases, patients note the appearance of acute, sometimes throbbing pain. Much less often they go to the doctor with dull pain.

Many people associate a trip to the dentist with the unpleasant procedure of removing nerves in a tooth. The word “arsenic” evokes even greater fear. However, medicine does not stand still and is constantly evolving. Read more in the article: “tooth hurts after arsenic.”

Almost always, discomfort negatively affects people’s quality of life and their psycho-emotional state. They cannot eat or sleep normally, which leads to problems with the digestive tract and central nervous system.

A sleep disorder is diagnosed in almost 90% of patients with widespread dentalgia, since the pain syndrome intensifies at night. During rest, the functional activity of the adrenal cortex decreases. In addition, the natural synthesis of so-called steroid hormones, which have analgesic properties, is reduced.

If the cause of dentalgia is dental disorders, the discomfort intensifies after direct contact with cold or eating excessively spicy or hot foods. It is enough just to open your mouth in frosty or windy weather for the pain syndrome to sharply intensify.

Psychosomatic dentalgia is often a consequence of stressful situations and strong psycho-emotional experiences. To eliminate discomfort, it is often enough to eliminate the provoking factor. Some patients benefit from sessions with a psychotherapist or taking mild sedatives.

Physiological factors

A separate group of reasons why patients experience toothache at night includes physiological factors:

1. The time interval is from 00 o'clock to 5 am. This period of time is the most stressful and difficult for the entire human body. It is at this time that pain intensifies and sensitivity to any lesions and diseases, including dental ones, increases.
2. Physiologists say that at night the vagus nerve called the vagus is activated, which has a large number of branches, some of which extend to the head area. The vagus affects the general condition and mood of a person. At night, the tone of the vagus nerve changes, which leads to increased sensitivity and pain.
3. Also, based on the characteristics of the biorhythm, at night, even in a healthy person, blood pressure increases significantly. High blood pressure increases toothache.

Health care

The occurrence of dentalgia is a signal to seek medical help. If toothache appears above and below, you should not self-medicate. You need to make an appointment with the dentist. If the pain syndrome does not allow you to sleep and do your usual activities, it is better to contact the emergency clinic.

At home and only as an emergency measure, non-narcotic analgesics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are allowed. The most popular drugs from these groups, their approximate dosage are presented in the table below.

The dosages presented in the table are advisory in nature and selected for adult patients. For children, these indicators are calculated individually and only according to the instructions included with the drug.

Other lesions

Sometimes pain that is mistaken for a toothache may be due to the effects of other diseases. These include:

1. Inflammation of the tertiary nerve can cause severe jaw pain at night. As a result of the influence of various factors, the nerve can be severely irritated, which leads to sensations that can easily be confused with toothache.
2. If toothache is felt not only in the area of ​​one tooth, but spreads throughout the entire jaw, then such phenomena may be symptoms of inflammation of the periosteum of the tooth, and even some ENT diseases: sinusitis, sinusitis and otitis media. In a horizontal position, the outflow of fluid from the sinuses is hampered, which increases the discomfort and spreads it to the entire jaw.

In some cases, toothache at night can occur for reasons that are not related to dentistry. For example, due to severe exhaustion of the nervous system, lack of sleep or regular smoking.

What complications may arise?

The main thing to remember is that tooth sensitivity does not go away on its own. If you do not fight it, the disease will progress quickly. Unpleasant sensations will soon be replaced by outbreaks of pain when the enamel is irritated by hot and cold drinks. Then you will not be able to eat sweet and sour, salty and spicy. And at the last stage, short-term pain transforms into constant pain, and its intensity will be such that just touching the tooth will seem unbearable.

At the last stage of the disease, fluoridation will no longer help. It will be lucky if the dentist agrees to cover the patient’s own enamel with composite materials. But in most cases, the doctor will insist on the removal of diseased teeth and subsequent prosthetics.

What to do if your tooth hurts badly at night

It should be remembered that all independent procedures will only help temporarily reduce pain and not eliminate the disease. The most common folk methods include:

1. Painkillers. Such medications effectively help eliminate unpleasant symptoms, which alleviates the general condition of a person. The dosage of drugs should be taken according to the instructions. Overdosing on a medicine can cause serious problems.
2. The use of tinctures of medicinal herbs for rinsing the mouth. The following herbs are suitable for these purposes: calendula, oak bark, calamus root, chamomile, plantain and sage. They have anti-inflammatory and antiseptic effects. Infusions should be used only if there are no allergic reactions to the herbs used.
3. Rinse with salt solution. This solution helps to temporarily eliminate discomfort and make you feel better. It does not cause allergies.

If the temperature rises sharply or swelling occurs, this may be a sign of the spread of the inflammatory process. In such a situation, you must immediately seek the help of a specialist.

Pericoronitis

This is difficult eruption of wisdom teeth (eights). When a tooth cannot erupt normally, inflammation of the surrounding soft tissue and periosteum behind the dental socket begins. Inflamed gums are constantly injured when chewing, which further aggravates the process.

The inflammatory process can gradually lead to the development of purulent pericoronitis.

Symptoms:

• Constant pain that gets worse when chewing
• Pain radiates to the ear and temporal region
• Pain when opening the mouth
• Enlargement and tenderness in the submandibular lymph nodes
• Sharp pain when pressing on the gums, purulent discharge is possible
• Increased body temperature

In the future, the pain continues to intensify and the body temperature rises. The patient's health deteriorates significantly, and retromolar periostitis may develop.

Visit to the dental office

When visiting a dental clinic, the specialist will conduct a thorough examination of the oral cavity, then prescribe the patient to undergo an x-ray examination. Images are necessary to determine the extent of tissue damage, detect the source of inflammation and make the correct diagnosis. Treatment of deep caries and pulpitis is carried out using the same methods. During treatment, the doctor:

1. Provides local anesthesia by injecting an anesthetic into the tissue surrounding the diseased tooth.
2. Eliminates affected tissue.
3. Performs mechanical and antiseptic treatment of canals.
4. Performs canal fillings.
5. Takes a control photograph of the tooth.
6. Restores the damaged part of the tooth.

After undergoing treatment for deep caries or pulpitis, the patient may still feel discomfort and unpleasant sensations for some time, which should subside over several days. In case of periodontitis and periostitis, it is initially necessary to eliminate the source of infection. To do this, root canals are cleaned and processed. Treatment of gumboil and periodontitis takes longer. After eliminating the source of infection, the canals are filled and the crown of the tooth is restored. Sometimes surgical methods are used to treat flux. If you ignore the problem and do not seek the help of a dentist, then the chances of saving the tooth are greatly reduced. If acute toothache occurs due to the eruption of the eighth tooth, then it is very important to promptly seek the advice of a specialist. After examining the oral cavity and conducting an X-ray examination, the doctor will select the most effective treatment method in each specific case. The dentist begins performing therapeutic procedures after administering local anesthesia. Modern anesthetics are highly effective and well tolerated by the body.

Treatment at home

Visiting the clinic is a prerequisite for quality therapy. If it is not possible to see a doctor, you can temporarily turn to folk remedies. The following show the greatest effectiveness:

• Infusions and decoctions of herbs. Rinsing allows you to cope with the manifestations of the inflammatory process, kills bacteria, relieves swelling, and promotes rapid healing.
• Propolis. The most effective are rinses with an alcohol tincture based on this substance. However, it is important to remember that such manipulations are only allowed for adult patients. They are contraindicated for children.
• Warm milk. It is worth drinking it warm as often as possible, holding it in your mouth for a short time. Dairy products contain calcium, which has a beneficial effect on the condition of enamel.

It is recommended to use special gels and rinses designed to clean sensitive incisors, canines and molars. They contain fluoride.

But you can’t rely solely on home treatments. They can only be an addition to complex drug therapy. Even if the unpleasant symptoms have disappeared, you should not neglect a visit to the doctor.

Choosing toothpaste

When deciding what to do when teeth become sensitive to cold and hot, the dentist will first of all recommend to the patient special products for daily cleaning. Bleaching compounds should be completely abandoned, even if they do not contain abrasives.

Let's look at what you need to pay attention to when purchasing:

• Stick only to specialized paste-like and gel-like preparations. Most manufacturers put a special mark on the packaging about the purpose of the product.
• At the pharmacy you can additionally purchase medications that reduce sensitivity.
• The more fluoride a product contains, the better in this situation. The substance has a positive effect on the condition of the enamel. The hard outer layer of the units is restored, they cease to hurt and respond to stimuli.

The brush should also be suitable. Medium-hard bristles are the best option for high-quality cleaning and preventing surface scratching. But before purchasing any hygiene items, it is better to consult a doctor.

Oral care

After treatment and elimination of painful sensations, to prevent such situations in the future, you should adhere to the following mandatory rules:

• Carry out regular, thorough cleaning of your teeth and gums with a brush and paste. Use additional hygiene products in the form of rinses, flosses and irrigators.
• undergo regular preventive examinations with a dentist.
• It is extremely important to eat right. To do this, you need to reduce the amount of sweets, confectionery and sweet carbonated drinks you consume. It is important to balance your diet with as many fruits, fresh vegetables, and herbs as possible.
• try not to smoke or drink alcoholic beverages. Nicotine negatively affects the entire human body. People who smoke develop pigmented plaque on their teeth, which provokes the development of gingivitis and periodontitis. Alcohol reduces immunity and contributes to the development of mucosal dystrophy.
• carefully monitor and be attentive to your health!

How to avoid hyperesthesia

To avoid hyperesthesia, you need to regularly take care of your tooth enamel. Here are a few simple rules that will help keep your enamel healthy:

• Brush your teeth every day with fluoride toothpaste. But you should avoid pastes that contain abrasives;
• To brush your teeth, you should choose a brush with medium hardness. You need to brush your teeth thoroughly, but without being too harsh;
• Be sure to eat foods that contain calcium and phosphorus. But you need to eat less sweets;
• Avoid eating very hot or cold foods. If you drink a hot drink, you should avoid getting it on your teeth.

If you have toothaches, you need to visit a qualified dentist so that he can find out the causes and then eliminate them. If everything is fine with your teeth, you should still go to the dental clinic once every six months for preventative care. If your teeth are in order, then going to the dental clinic will be a simple, pleasant walk.