Why You Should Never Ignore a Toothache

Imagine this: You wake up in the morning, ready to grab some breakfast to start your day right, only to feel a sudden and sharp pain in your tooth.

You try to search online for remedies to cure that unpleasant sensation, and a slew of suggestions pop out. So you apply solutions like ginger, salt water, painkillers, over-the-counter medications to remedy your problems.

While those remedies may provide temporary relief, the pain is going to persist if you don’t contact a dentist to examine the root cause.

The worst thing you could do is neglect your tooth pain. Too many people visit dentists like Australian dental specialists too late, resulting in a more costly procedure to revert back to normal.

In addition to that, ignoring the tooth pain also accelerates the deterioration of your oral health, causing the pain to spread to the jaw and worsen the infection.

Here are reasons why you should never ignore a toothache.

1) You Might Have A Cavity

When people encounter their first signs of a toothache, their first thought is that it’s a cavity.

A cavity forms when billions of bad bacteria form around the enamel — the outer casing of your tooth that protects against physical and chemical damage — and destroys it. 

This destruction creates a hole that can go far up the root of the tooth, leading to a throbbing or shooting type of pain. This could result in an increased sensitivity of teeth to hot and cold temperatures as well as swelling along the vicinity.

2) A Possible Chance For A Tooth Infection

With bad oral habits like a high sugar diet or poor dental hygiene, a tooth becomes more prone to infection and aching. This infection is called an abscess — a pocket of pus that clusters harmful bacteria around the tooth’s root. 

This abscess can further be classified into two types: periapical, which occurs at the tip of the root, and periodontal, which occurs at the gum or side of the tooth.

Here are some causes of abscess formation:

• Untreated Dental Cavity
• Sudden Tooth Injury
• Botched Dental Work

If left untreated, the infection could potentially spread to your jaw and surrounding tissue, causing you to have trouble breathing and swallowing. Should that occur, find a dentist immediately or go to an emergency room to get proper treatment.

3) Your Enamel May Be Eroding

Enamel is a very tough outer layer of the tooth – tougher than a bone even. But it’s also the first point of contact for food and saliva. As such, it’s prone to wear and tear,  leading to what we know as enamel erosion.

Some of the complications caused by enamel erosion include:

• Yellow Stained Teeth
• Sensitive Teeth
• Increased Tooth Decay
• Fractured Teeth
• Slightly Translucent Teeth

Although enamel does not regenerate with the lack of living cells, dentists can help slow it by tooth bonding. Tooth bonding is a procedure where resin, a tooth-colored filling material, gets applied to the stained or damaged teeth.

If you’re experiencing some of the signs above, looking for treatment from a dentist is the best course of action to take.

4) Your Wisdom Tooth Is Causing Pain

Wisdom teeth are the third set of molars. Between ages 17 to 25, one or more molars move through the jawbone and force themselves outside the gums.

This penetration of the wisdom tooth can cause inflammation in the gums, resulting in bleeding. Occasionally, you may also experience toothache or headaches alongside the inflammation.

There are modes of pain relief like applying peppermint, salt water, and certain essential oils. However, to get rid of the pain, avoid frequent headaches, bloody saliva, or feel an abscess growing underneath your gums, dental monitoring and wisdom tooth extraction are generally recommended.

5) You Might Have Gum Disease Or Gingivitis

Also called periodontitis, gum disease starts when harmful bacteria build up in your mouth. If left untreated, tooth loss is possible from this due to the destruction of the surrounding teeth tissue.

What precedes gum disease is gingivitis or gum inflammation. However, not all cases of gingivitis turn into gum disease.

Plaque and bacteria build up during the early stages of gingivitis, causing gum inflammation and bleeding when brushing your teeth. During this stage, no teeth damage has occurred yet.

But when left untreated, the gum and bone separate from the teeth and form pockets where more plaque can build up, loosening the teeth as a result.