My tooth hurts cold, hot, biting, after a filling or under a crown – what should I do?
When a tooth becomes painful, the wisest thing to do is to find a sympathetic dentist as soon as possible. Procrastination will not help here, you should have a condition assessment. A toothache can go away for a while, but in deep tissues, procrastination has serious consequences (e.g. bone destruction, the spread of pus). If you have a toothache, the first and most important thing is to get your head together mentally: this problem needs to be solved as quickly as possible, in an adult way, without self-pity, with a lot of self-confidence and self-love!
My tooth hurts, what should I do?
A toothache is not like a stomach bug or the flu – it doesn’t go away by itself. There’s a good reason why a tooth hurts. It is important to find out what the cause is, both to get rid of the toothache and to avoid a consequence that will be much more difficult to treat later, at great cost. Procrastination has a price, do not make this mistake!
Toothache relief, smart preparation for dental treatment
Even if you can’t manage to visit your favourite dentist temporarily, it’s still worth taking the following steps:
- Make an appointment with your favourite dentist, and make sure you’re covered!
- If you don’t have a favourite dentist, find one. Take some time to do this, ask relatives and colleagues, read reviews and make a decision based on these.
- Brush your teeth more often if possible, and after meals. If your pain is due to gingivitis, this will help quickly. If a cavity is blocked by food debris, brushing can give some relief
- Brushing and brushing your teeth can help you to better identify the problem, which can come in handy when you go to the dentist
- Don’t keep saying you’re not going to the dentist because you’re just cutting the wood from under you. If you have a massive phobia of the dentist, it’s worth sorting this out first – there are several homoeopathic remedies to help with different types of dental phobia. Dental treatment is not painful 99% of the time, thanks to the modern drugs now available to dentists. The key is not here, but finding a dentist you trust.
- If the tissues inside or around the tooth are inflamed, pre-treatment may be necessary. However, don’t start a course of antibiotics on your own, on your own initiative! In many cases, you will not be able to get rid of your symptoms, or only for a short time. The antibiotic will not reach the inside of the tooth! Your digestive system will be unnecessarily burdened with antibiotics. The antibiotic is not aspirin, leave it to the doctor to prescribe it!
There are some home remedies for toothache relief, but these are mainly effective when the process is still in its early stages, i.e. when a really serious toothache has not yet developed.
The following remedies may provide temporary relief:
- chewing cloves has a superficial numbing effect, is a good distraction, and is much needed at this time (excellent for bad breath!)
- Sage tea or sage toothpaste can also be effective for incipient problems – it won’t cure the process, but it can temporarily relieve it
- through non-steroidal analgesics available from pharmacies. Caution! Aspirin has blood-thinning properties. If dental treatment involves tooth extraction, aspirin may prolong the bleeding from the wound. It is good for acute pain relief, but you should also be aware of the consequences!
- The homoeopathic remedy Arnica Montana is an effective and well-established aid in dental treatment. It reduces pain and bleeding during treatment, speeds up healing after treatment and also reduces pain. It is not good for treating incipient toothache, but is rather a very smart and conscious preparation tool for dental treatment and an additional help after dental treatment. We warmly recommend it to everyone!
What could be the cause of my toothache or sensitivity to cold?
Sensitivity to cold indicates that the nerves in the tooth are sending a signal to the brain saying “Listen, something is wrong, look around urgently!” In most cases, sensitivity to cold is still manageable, but it is important to investigate the cause:
- The tooth can become sensitive if the gum recedes from the tooth socket due to poor brushing technique and the gum becomes free – improve brushing habits, seal the gum with a cavity sealant if necessary, or use a sensitivity-reducing toothpaste
- Cold sensitivity may indicate incipient tooth decay. If the sensitivity subsides after the cold effect, the process can most likely be stopped with an aesthetic dental filling. It’s important to see a dentist as soon as possible, while there is still a chance of getting a filling.
- If the tooth reacts with pain to a cold drink and the pain does not subside after drinking, or only much later, deep caries and consequent periodontitis may be the cause. The therapy in such cases is most often root canal treatment.
What could be the reason why my teeth hurt or are sensitive to heat?
If you repeatedly feel a pulling pain in a tooth while eating a hot soup, it is most likely due to necrosis of the tooth soup. The reason for the pain is that bacteria in the root canal produce gas, which expands when it is hot, and this tension can be felt as pain. The following teeth may develop this situation:
- a tooth that has died due to deep decay
- a tooth that has been root canaled in the past, where there are untreated areas, including bacteria
- a tooth that has died under the crown of the tooth
- a dead tooth under a filling
If you have a toothache that is triggered by heat, you should make an appointment with your dentist as soon as possible. X-rays will also be needed for an accurate diagnosis. An X-ray of a dead tooth has a good chance of revealing it, even if no serious inflammation or cyst has developed around the root apex. The therapy is root canal therapy.
What could be the reason why my tooth hurts or is sensitive when I bite down on it?
If the tooth hurts when you bite down on it, or “feels so long” when you bite down on it, it may be due to inflammation around the root apex. It is not the tooth that hurts, but the infinitely sensitive nerves that innervate the root tip of the tooth. After the tooth has died, bacterial toxins from the inside of the tooth flow out into the surrounding root-tip area. The immune system naturally defends itself against the toxins and inflammation develops. When the tooth is bitten on, the fibres that gently anchor the tooth in the bony tooth socket are slightly stretched, putting pressure on the root tip, which, if inflamed, reacts with pain or tenderness when bitten on. An X-ray is needed for an accurate diagnosis. In most cases, the X-ray will show nodular inflammation around the root tip of the tooth with the complaint. The therapy – root canal treatment
What could be the reason for my tooth being sore or sensitive after a filling?
There can be many causes of sensitivity or pain after a filling, ranging from the most trivial to a situation requiring serious treatment. The depth of the decay that originally developed in the filled tooth will largely determine the consequences:
- Caries in the tooth was not very deep, but after the filling, pain may still be experienced when biting down on it. Possible reasons: a. the filling is a little high – it may go away in a day or two or you may want to go back for an adjustment. In a numb state, you cannot feel when it is high or right, and the dentist cannot always adjust it accurately, despite his best intentions. b. the filling touches the border between the enamel and the dentin, a very delicate and sensitive part of the tooth. In such cases, the sensitivity usually goes away in a few days, if not, you have to go back to the dentist and may need a new filling – with new filling material or a different technique (see SDR technique)
- The tooth had moderate caries, sensitivity after filling