Toothache – Causes, Prevention and Treatment

Toothache is a condition where the tooth or its surrounding gums cause extreme pain due to one of the several reasons. It can be lesion or an inflammation to the pulp that can lead to pain in that region and it effects the whole body of the tooth.

Navigate through the contents –
Causes of toothache
How to prevent toothache?
What is the treatment for toothache?

Causes of toothache –

1. Temperature Sensitivity – This is one of the most common causes, in which any contact to very hot or very cold temperature suddenly causes sensitivity to the tooth and causes pain. This is more prominent when the tooth surface has been worn out earlier and the dentin part of the tooth is exposed directly to the extreme temperatures and the dentinal tubules show the maximum sensitivity.
2. Dental decay or caries – Caused due to plaque formation consisting of microorganisms which slowly decays the tooth and cause pain.
3. Fracture of the tooth – This may be caused due to any accident, or improper contact of teeth within food in between and the masticatory forces being higher.
4. Cracked tooth – As the color directly hit to tooth is reflected, identifying a crack on the tooth is not easy but still this is one of the reasons for tooth pain.
5. Pulpal irritation – This can happen after any dental treatment. This can happen only if the tooth does not accept the material used for the treatment or for the filling. During this, there is some inflammatory response produced by the pulp and this leads to dental pain.
6. Improper Diet – The salivary production, the gastric production are all controlled by a biological cycle in our body and the saliva with maximum enzymes is secreted in a timely manner. So proper diet and time should be maintained, or else the infection of microorganisms become more evolved and can cause tooth pain.
7. Sugary diet – Diet containing sugary food is full of carbohydrates which are always regarded as the house for microorganisms. In a sugary environment, the bacteria grow rapidly and cause the decay and pain of the tooth.
8. Gum disease – Gum diseases like Gingivitis are one of the factors that cause the tooth pain.
9. Other than mouth – Rarely, some conditions like sinusitis, or an ear infection can also indirectly lead to tooth pain.

How to prevent toothache?

You never know what the reason for your toothache is. So your best adviser is the dentist. Visit a dentist as soon as you experience pain in the mouth as it can be some infection or injury and should be needed to treat it before it spreads. Here are some of the precautions and remedies you can follow to prevent toothache –

1. No extreme conditions – You should avoid hot or cold things that can increase the pain. The pain caused due to inflammation of pulp i.e. pulpitis can be prevented by having food of normal temperature conditions.
2. Vitamin-C rich diet – Vitamin-C or ascorbic acid is well known for helping in absorption of calcium and phosphorus, and deposition on the tooth to strengthen and growth of the calcified tissues of the tooth i.e. the enamel layer. And this vitamin also helps in restricting the growth of microorganisms.
3. Brushing habits – You should brush twice daily, i.e. before breakfast and after dinner. Here are a few tips on how to brush your teeth(Read comments there). If you have untimely and improper brushing habits, lot of small food particles accumulate between the teeth in the embrasures and this can lead to formation of dental plaque and tooth decay later. Flossing also helps in emptying the spaces and keeping them clean.
4. Use fluoride-based toothpaste – Fluorine is well known to prevent infections, and helps in strengthening of the enamel layer which can prevent the rotting of the layer due to microorganisms.
5. Lessen sugary food intake – Sugary food as said, helps in growth of microorganisms. This is why the young kids are told to eat lesser chocolates as this helps in protection of the tooth surfaces and so tooth pain does not occur.

Treatment of toothache?

When suffering from toothache, as said above, you have to visit a dentist for the best cure. But before approaching a dentist, you can follow these steps to subside the pain –

1. Use toothpaste for sensitive teeth, which are specially made to reduce the pain due to hypersensitivity on the tooth.
2. In pain due to tooth eruption, a teaspoon of salt taken in a cup of water is used to rinse the painful region thoroughly and this salt content helps in reducing the pain for sometime.
3. Ulcer near the tooth can also cause tooth pain. This can be reduced by normal rinsing of that region with salt water.
4. Painkillers like NSAIDs(Non-Steroidal Anti-inflammatory drugs) i.e. Ibuprofen available as Nurofen and other tablets like Nicip plus can help in relieving pain as they are the analgesics which act on reducing pain.
5. Clove oil or powder – Clove is one of the best natural remedies as it has antiseptic properties and when clove oil is used on any painful tooth, the pain is relieved immediately giving relaxing effects. In absence of clove oil, grinding clove and using its clove powder is also helpful.
6. Bacterial removal by wheat – It is believed that wheat juice or wheat grass when chewed helps in reducing tooth pain, and sometimes also helps in curing any decaying of the tooth as it is known to helpfully remove the attacking the bacteria from the region of infection.
7. Salt water – Salt water either cold or in warm temperature when rinsed in the painful region would help in reducing the pain caused due to either any infection or any tooth eruption.
8. Bacterial kill with onions – Bacterial growth can also be ceased by chewing onion for 3 minutes, this can be burning to mouth but it rapidly kills the bacteria and prevents the further growth and reduces the dental pain.
9. Using Asafoetida – It is believed that using Asafoetida helps in relieving pain and is advised to use along with lemon juice and heated slightly before usage. It should not be directly applied, but a cotton swab is soaked into this solution and used over the painful region of the tooth.
10. Pepper as a dentrifice – Pepper when mixed with a bit higher quantity of salt is used for various purposes like curing of toothache, prevention of dental caries, reducing foul breath, reducing bleeding of gums.

But it is still advised that these are the temporary remedies and you should give a visit to the dentist for the final conclusion.