Pain in your teeth can feel excruciating and make it hard to concentrate on your regular routine. Even if you think you can tolerate this type of discomfort, you should not ignore it. You should contact your dentist about this issue right away.
Dental pain often develops as a symptom of a larger oral health problem that usually requires urgent dental treatment to fix. You may realize that tooth pain may vary as far as its sensation.
The form of pain you feel can indicate the dental problem on hand. You should still call your dentist for an evaluation. But you can read on to learn about three types of pain you may feel in your tooth and what they mean for your oral health.
Tooth Sensitivity
Do you notice a sharp jolt of pain in your tooth when you bite into food? This uncomfortable sensation is known as tooth sensitivity. It happens when your enamel, the outer layer of the tooth, sustains damage that exposes underlying nerves.
When food or another stimulus touches these exposed nerves, they transmit pain signals to the brain. The pain stops when you remove the stimulus, hence why tooth sensitivity seems intermittent. Even when the pain fades, it still points to a larger problem in your dental structure.
Weakened enamel will not regenerate, so you will need help from your dentist to shield thinned enamel and stop tooth sensitivity pain. Treatment for this issue will depend on the cause of the enamel erosion. Tooth decay can cause this symptom, so treating cavities can resolve it.
But enamel may wear down over time due to consuming acidic substances, for instance. The dentist may need to replace weak enamel by covering the tooth with a dental crown. The cap over the tooth blocks stimuli from touching exposed nerves, stopping this type of tooth pain.
Dull Toothache
A constant ache in your tooth can be disruptive, but many people may ignore it because it does not feel severe. But any form of tooth pain is abnormal and warrants evaluation from your dentist.
Low-grade toothaches may occur due to an acute factor, like having something stuck in your teeth. Chronic habits like grinding your teeth may generate pressure that causes this type of pain as well. Pinpoint the reason for this pain with help from your dentist so that you can resolve it before further dental harm accrues.
Throbbing Oral Pain
A severe pain in a tooth that seems to throb can majorly interrupt your life. Deep and pulsing dental pain will usually need emergency intervention from your dentist. So do not delay calling the dentist’s office about this problem.
Intense tooth pain can happen when you have an infection in the tooth pulp. The dentist will need to perform root canal therapy to stop the infection from spreading and alleviate painful symptoms.
You may also feel this level of tooth pain when you fracture a tooth. This dental injury may not always have a visible sign like a crack, so visit your dentist for a thorough exam.