Toothache is one of the most unbearable and painful sensations for a person. It occurs due to pathological processes in the tooth or surrounding tissue that affect nerve fibers. Paroxysmal pain affects mood, activity, sleep, and in especially severe cases leads to neuropsychiatric disorders. What are the causes of toothache and why does its intensity increase at night?
Why do my teeth hurt at night but not during the day?
It would be more correct to say that your teeth hurt more at night. During the day there are too many distractions that prevent you from focusing on your feelings. Work, household chores and even simple walking force the brain to work in a different direction, which leads to less pain.
Another, main factor is physiological. In the evening, the level of corticosteroids in the body begins to decrease; they are “responsible” for reducing pain. Hormone production reaches a minimum between midnight and five in the morning, after which the tooth gradually begins to fall out. Usually by this time the exhausted body “gives up”, the person falls asleep and gets a short respite.
Another cause of night pain is the horizontal position of the body during sleep. The rush of blood to the head increases, while the nerve roots are compressed and the pain intensifies. This is especially noticeable with pulpitis, when the sensations become unbearable.
Important.
If you notice increased pain while lying down, raise the pillow higher and practically sit down. The blood will drain from your head and it will become a little easier.
It’s a special problem when the tooth under the filling hurts. This means that an infection has entered the treated cavity and an inflammatory process has begun. The resulting pus, even in a minimal amount, has no way out and begins to compress the nerve roots, which leads to severe acute pain that can even radiate to the ear and throat.
At night, it is also possible to experience minor pain after the removal of a tooth or nerve, as well as after treatment of deep caries. This is normal and does not require any serious measures to be taken. In this case, it is enough to take a tablet of any analgesic or rinse your mouth with a warm soda solution.
Important.
If you had a difficult removal and then experienced severe pain at night, you should immediately consult a doctor in the morning. Alternatively, bone fragments could remain in the socket. In this case, the entire jaw will hurt, and it will be almost impossible to relieve the sensation even with strong medications.
Dream details
Remember which teeth hurt in your dream:
- affected by caries - be on your guard: you are surrounded by deceitful friends and partners;
- rotten, crumbling - you will soon get sick;
- staggering - troubles, complications in the service;
- breaking with a crunch - you will quarrel with partners and relatives;
- falling out with blood and painful sensations - the death of someone close is possible.
Dead tooth hurts
After the nerve is removed, the tooth may respond for some time with mild pain to pressure or biting, including at night. This is a normal reaction. In these cases, it is enough to take a painkiller tablet.
If the pain becomes twitching and intensifies, it means that the nerve was not completely removed or the doctor made mistakes related to cleaning the canals or installing a filling. The biggest problem is that neither pills nor folk remedies will help. Start looking for a doctor right away.
Wisdom tooth hurts
A special unit in our body is the wisdom tooth. It usually erupts at the age of 18-25 years, and severe pain may occur. The molar breaks through the bone and gum tissue, essentially tearing it apart. At night, the pain may intensify; it can be relieved with the help of pain-relieving gels (Cholisal, Metrogyl Denta, Asepta) or analgesics.
It’s good if the tooth runs vertically and has enough space in the gum. A much worse option is when the molar breaks through at an angle or even horizontally. The “figure eight” puts pressure on the roots of neighboring teeth and displaces them. In addition to pain, swelling of the gums and cheeks may appear, as well as an increase in body temperature. As a temporary option, you can take painkillers, but the problem will have to be resolved with a surgeon. As always, the sooner the better.
A wisdom tooth can simply hurt due to caries, pulpitis, periodontitis, or cysts. Another reason is inflammation of the so-called hood, a fold on the gum that forms when teeth erupt. The cause of pericoronitis is the accumulation of food particles, which gradually begin to rot, accompanied by pain in the “eight” area. In the most severe situations, pus begins to secrete.
To relieve pain, you can rinse your mouth with warm infusions of herbs (sage, chamomile), use a gel and take a pain reliever. And in the morning - to the doctor.
Important.
A wisdom tooth is also a tooth. But, if it interferes with the normal position of the teeth, causes crowding, or if the dentin is deeply damaged, dentists recommend removing it.
Reasons not related to teeth
With severe toothache, it seems that everything hurts - the ear, throat, head and even the skin on the face. In some cases, a person is not able to determine the source of the sensation and believes that a bad tooth is to blame.
Night pain similar to toothache can also occur in the following cases:
- For inflammation of the trigeminal nerve. Characterized by a nagging, severe pain, localized in the area of one tooth or spread throughout the entire jaw. This is explained by the fact that the branches of the nerve are located very close to the roots of the teeth and when they become inflamed, pain occurs that is very similar to toothache.
- For sinusitis, sinusitis, otitis media. Swollen tissues and sinuses filled with purulent contents put pressure on the roots of the teeth. The resulting pain is very similar to toothache. In most cases, it is observed in children who find it difficult to correctly determine the location of pain
- Under stress. Chronic night pain can be considered as one of the factors confirming the stressful state of the body.
Important.
Even if you have such assumptions, you will still have to visit the dentist. This must be done in order to exclude inflammatory diseases of the teeth and oral cavity, correctly diagnose and prescribe the correct treatment.
Toothache and its types
Pain occurs under a variety of circumstances and varies in intensity and duration.
- Short-term painful sensations from sweets signal the initial stage of caries.
- Passing pain from a sharp temperature change occurs with advanced caries.
- Sharp pain during hygiene procedures or when eating cold food indicates increased sensitivity of the teeth.
- Prolonged aching pain from exposure to temperatures can occur due to inflammation of the nerve.
- Acute toothache, worsening in the evening, can be felt with pulpitis.
- A bursting, aching pain when pressed appears with periodontitis.
Pain does not occur out of nowhere; there are certain reasons for this. Only when they are eliminated can you breathe a sigh of relief.
What to do if you have tooth pain at night
It is necessary to assume that at night the pain becomes much stronger than during the day. Physiologically, a person should already be resting, but he has to look for a way to alleviate his condition. The worst case scenario is when acute pain causes you to wake up.
In such situations, all thoughts are aimed at eliminating unpleasant sensations as soon as possible. It is unlikely that someone will prepare a complex decoction or tincture in the middle of the night.
We offer several quick solutions to help relieve the pain at least a little:
- Immediately take an analgesic - any one you have in the house. The group includes analgin, tempalgin, pentalgin, ketorol. Paracetamol will help. Be aware of the danger of overdose. Medicines begin to act approximately 20-30 minutes after administration.
- Apply something cold to your cheek. Take ice or a piece of meat out of the freezer; even a pack of dumplings will do. Wrap it in a towel and apply it to the sore cheek. The cold will help relieve swelling from the tissues, and the pressure on the nerve roots will decrease. It is important to remember that you need to take breaks every 15-20 minutes so as not to chill the trigeminal nerve.
- Rinse your mouth with a warm solution of baking soda - one teaspoon per glass of water. Repeat rinsing every half hour. It will not be possible to completely remove the pain, but it will become a little easier.
- Brew any herb that has anti-inflammatory properties - chamomile, thyme, oregano. Standard proportions are one tablespoon per glass of boiling water. Infuse, cool, strain. Rinse only with warm solution.
- Use folk remedies - apply a piece of lard to the sore gum, a clove of garlic to the wrist. If you have it in the house, you can rinse your mouth with vodka or cognac (do not drink, this is important) - at first you will feel a sharp pain, then it will become easier.
If you are tired and can no longer walk, lie down in a semi-sitting position. In this case, the head must be higher than the body.
To distract yourself, you can do some quiet work - ironing clothes, drawing, embroidering, writing notes. The main thing is that you can switch your attention.
You will need to survive the most difficult time - from midnight to five o'clock in the morning. In the morning, the production of corticosteroids will begin to increase, and the pain will subside a little. We recommend that you prepare for a visit to the doctor once. No one else will help you.
Do not ignore preventive visits to the dentist.
It is enough to visit a specialist 1 – 2 times a year, which will allow you to promptly identify any dental problem at an early stage of development. This means that its elimination will be quick, easy and without complications.
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What not to do if your tooth hurts
We consider it our duty to remind you of what you absolutely cannot do, even if the pain is very severe. Some of these recommendations may cause laughter, but such cases have been encountered in practice.
So, let's list:
- We don’t heat – we don’t use a heating pad, an iron, hot metal, we don’t lean our cheeks against a hot radiator. Heat provokes swelling, tissue pressure on the roots of teeth and nerves increases, and the pain becomes unbearable. Heating is also dangerous because pus can break through into the sinuses and skull tissue.
- We don’t take antibiotics - firstly, they won’t help, and secondly, such medications should not be taken without a doctor’s prescription.
- We don’t take no-shpu - it won’t help, the principle of action of the medicine is based on its effect on the transverse muscles. No-spa does not help with toothache.
- We don’t try to pull out a tooth or pick out a filling ourselves. There is a high probability of damage to the tooth, jaw and infection.
- We absolutely do not drink alcohol. If you smoke, try not to exceed your limit - excess nicotine will worsen the condition.
Important.
You cannot apply a piece of analgin tablet or any other painkiller to your gum or cheek; you will get a severe burn and tissue necrosis. And don’t delay the visit to the dentist, you still have to go.
What you should absolutely not do
- warm the inflamed area: heat leads to the progression of infection, breakthrough of pus into deeper layers of tissue and even its spread to internal organs in purulent-inflammatory dental diseases,
- drink alcohol
- put crushed Aspirin or Analgin into the carious cavity,
- rinse your mouth with potassium permanganate or alcohol solutions, vinegar, tincture with propolis and pepper: this can cause a burn to the mucous membrane, and propolis contains sugars, which can increase the number of harmful bacteria,
- pull out teeth on your own or “open” existing fillings, try to remove artificial crowns if it hurts under them.
You should use lotions with essential oils with caution, because... they may cause an allergic reaction.
As for garlic and onions, rinsing with decoctions of these natural products is also not recommended, because they can cause irritation of the inflamed and swollen mucous membrane. However, as an alternative method, if nothing else helps, you can apply garlic to your wrist - it is safe, and, as some Internet users claim, it sometimes helps reduce the intensity of pain.
When you can't put off visiting a doctor
Night pain is dangerous because a person does not have the opportunity to immediately go to a doctor and fix the problem. In particular, in the pre-dawn time, against the background of pain and anxiety, blood pressure may rise and a stroke may occur.
If you have severe night pain:
- body temperature increased;
- breathing became difficult;
- heart rate increased;
- severe swelling appeared on one side of the face;
- facial sensitivity on the affected side is impaired,
We call an ambulance and don’t wait for the condition to worsen.
In cases where the pain simply becomes unbearable and it becomes impossible to endure it, look for clinics or services that provide dental care around the clock.
Important.
Be careful when taking medications. Under no circumstances should an overdose be allowed, as this can lead to an allergic reaction, including swelling.
Complications
The most obvious complication of such pain is a severe decrease in a person's quality of life. Complaints that “The tooth only hurts when I lie down” can also be translated as “I can’t sleep.”
Without proper rest, sooner or later the body’s nervous resources are depleted, and pain is accompanied by neuropathic disorders, sudden mood swings, irritability or apathy and other disorders that in one way or another affect a person’s life and his relationships with others.
But the dental range of complications is no less impressive. These include the development of a purulent process and the release of infection into the bloodstream; spread of inflammation to the soft tissues of the face, lymph nodes and much more.
Prevention of dental diseases
Preventive methods for dental diseases are very simple. It is necessary to maintain daily oral hygiene, visit the dentist 1-2 times a year, and monitor your diet.
If you are a smoker with or without experience, or a big fan of strong tea or coffee, be prepared for the fact that preventative cleaning will need to be carried out more often. Dental plaque is an ideal environment for the proliferation of pathogenic flora and, accordingly, the occurrence of inflammatory lesions on the teeth and in the mouth.
Food must contain sufficient amounts of phosphorus and calcium, vitamins, and microelements. Improper nutrition will lead to rapid destruction of dentin and tooth loss.
Particular attention to these factors should be paid to those who are prone to periodontal disease and periodontitis or are already sick with them.
Author: Elena Kopylova Dentist-therapist, endodontist, pediatric dentist. Work experience more than 7 years. The information is for reference only. Before treatment, consultation with a doctor is necessary.
