Pain compass

Tooth­ache can have various cau­ses. Here we will inform you about typi­cal pain sym­ptoms and poten­ti­al remedies.

SYMPTOM: Brief sensivity to heat or cold

Poten­ti­al problem:

Brief sen­si­ti­vi­ty to heat and cold does not neces­s­a­ri­ly indi­ca­te a serious pro­blem. The sen­si­ti­vi­ty could be due to a loo­se fil­ling or the gums rece­ding slight­ly, expo­sing a small amount of the root surface.

What can you do?

Try a tooth­pas­te for sen­si­ti­ve tee­th. Only brush your tee­th in an up-and-down moti­on, ide­al­ly only from the gums to the tee­th (from red to white). Vigo­rous side­ways move­ments cau­se wear to the root sur­face. If all of this is unsuc­cessful, see your dentist.

SYMPTOM: Sensivity to hot or cold after dental work

Potential problem:

Den­tal tre­at­ment can tem­po­r­a­ri­ly irri­ta­te the ner­ve insi­de the tooth. This can cau­se tem­po­ra­ry tooth sensitivity.

What can you do?

Plea­se wait up to 6 weeks. If the sen­si­ti­vi­ty per­sists or gets worse, plea­se cont­act your dentist.

SYMPTOM: Sharp pain when chewing

Poten­ti­al problem:

The­re can be a varie­ty of reasons for this type of pain, which lead to tooth sen­si­ti­vi­ty; for exam­p­le, the­re could be a cavi­ty, a loo­se fil­ling or a crack in the tooth. This can then lead to dama­ge to the pulp (ner­ve).

What can you do?

In order to find out the exact cau­se, plea­se visit your den­tist. A crack in the tooth can lead to dama­ge to the tooth ner­ve, and can be trea­ted by an end­odon­to­lo­gist (spe­cia­list in root canal treatment).

SYMPTOM: Persistent pain after eating hot or cold food

Potential problem:

The pulp (ner­ve) of your tooth is likely to be dama­ged by a deep cavi­ty or by phy­si­cal trau­ma (impact, fall etc.).

What can you do?

Visit your den­tist or end­odon­to­lo­gist (spe­cia­list in root canal tre­at­ment). A root canal tre­at­ment will pro­ba­b­ly be neces­sa­ry to pre­ser­ve the tooth.

SYMPTOM: Constant, severe pain with pressure swelling of the gum and sensitivity to touch

Poten­ti­al problem:

One of your tee­th pro­ba­b­ly has an abs­cess, which leads to infec­tion of the under­ly­ing bone.

What can you do?

Visit your den­tist or end­odon­to­lo­gist (spe­cia­list in root canal tre­at­ment). It could help to pre­ser­ve the tooth. Take pain kil­lers until you see your clinician.

SYMPTOM: Dull pain and pressure in the upper jaw area

Potential problem:

The sym­ptoms of sinu­s­i­tis (sinus inflamm­a­ti­on) could feel like this. It is also pos­si­ble that the con­se­quen­ces of hea­vy tee­th grin­ding (bru­xism) can mani­fest them­sel­ves like this.

What can you do?

In the case of suspec­ted sinu­s­i­tis, for the time being you can mana­ge with pain kil­lers and medi­ca­ti­on for sinu­s­i­tis, and visit your ENT or fami­ly phy­si­ci­an. If your pro­blem is bru­xism, plea­se cont­act your dentist.

SYMPTOM: Cronic pain in the head, neck or ear

Poten­ti­al problem:

The­se types of pain are some­ti­mes cau­sed by tee­th with a dama­ged pulp (ner­ve). It is not uncom­mon for the­se pains to mani­fest in other are­as of the head and neck as well. Howe­ver, other gene­ral medi­cal or den­tal pro­blems could be responsible.

What can you do?

Visit your den­tist or end­odon­to­lo­gist (spe­cia­list in root canal tre­at­ment) for a tho­rough exami­na­ti­on. If it is not a den­tal pro­blem, a fur­ther exami­na­ti­on by your gene­ral medi­cal doc­tor will be recommended.