Toothaches are the pain that occurs in or around your teeth area; they can cause headaches, fever, and chills in some cases. Tooth pain results from poor oral hygiene, worn gums, infections, cavities, broken teeth, and other dental conditions. It’s a symptom indicating that there’s a dental problem brewing inside your mouth that needs a professional check. If you are a person who doesn’t believe in maintaining dental health, you might have toothaches or other tooth-related problems. That being said, sometimes tooth pain is normal, meaning it can result from stress, hormonal changes, and poor eating habits. Nonetheless, some toothaches can be serious and should not be ignored.
Having a toothache at night is a nightmare for both kids and adults. Dealing with a toothache with some home remedies like salt water rinse, peppermint tea, or hydrogen peroxide mouthwash may provide relief to some extent. However, if the pain has worsened or if it has been more than two days, you must visit your nearby dental practice in Weston, MA to get your teeth examined and treated.
Major Causes of Toothaches:
Toothache can result from several conditions, including:
- Tooth cavities
- Cracked tooth
- Damaged or infected tooth
- Tilted tooth or missing tooth
- Gum infection
- Bleeding gums or disease
- Teeth grinding
- Trigeminal neuralgia
- Wisdom teeth
- Loose or broken teeth caps or crowns
- Loose or broken fillings
- Improper or unfinished dental treatment (illegal treatments, dental treatments done by non-medical professionals)
- Problems with your braces and more
How Long Does a Toothache Last?
There is no way to determine the duration of a toothache, as it depends on the type of tooth pain and its underlying cause. For instance, if you aggressively brushed your teeth and your gums got bruised or irritated, then it might take two to three days to go away. In contrast, a toothache caused by cavities or abscesses might take longer, possibly a week or more, and sometimes it might come and go. If the condition of the cavity is severe, the pain might not completely subside.
Treatments Dentists Use for Toothaches:
Your dentist will examine your teeth, gums, and the surrounding area of your mouth to determine the cause of the problem. A dentist may do an X-ray to identify any crucial problems beneath the tooth or gum surface.
The majority of dentists use the following several treatments to relieve tooth pain:
- Toothache Medicines: Pain-relieving medicine and antibiotics can ease your pain and treat the infection to some degree. Though the effect may be temporary, it is effective. You can take over-the-counter painkillers like ibuprofen or acetaminophen after consulting your doctor. These medicines won’t treat the cause of the toothache pain; you might have to visit your dentist to understand the underlying cause of the pain.
- Dental Filling: If you have a dental cavity or your teeth are chipped or broken, it can cause a throbbing toothache. In such cases, your dentist may suggest a dental filling, in which they will clean the cavity or damaged tooth to prevent further infection that may spread to the surrounding teeth. After that, they will use sturdy dental material to fill the void.
- Dental Crown: If the cavity around your teeth grows too large, covering the inside of your teeth down to the root, the tooth may be damaged beneath the surface. To examine this, your dentist would do a few X-rays and clean the cavity. They will then fill the damaged area with a dental cap adjusted to your tooth size.
In some severe toothache cases, tooth extraction, inlays or onlays, and root canal therapy treatments are also performed by the dentist.