Toothaches: can you prevent them?

I was recently at the school playground with my kids after pick-up and happened to be in earshot of a two Mums discussing their weekends. One was saying that she had the worst toothache over the weekend, she couldn’t do anything because the pain was so bad.

I have been fortunate enough (good genes and good oral hygiene from when I started University) to have never experienced a toothache myself, but I have of course seen a great number of patients in pain. Some common things I have heard include:

‘I would rather go through labour again than go through that toothache’

‘It was worse than my … ‘ (insert painful-sounding medical procedure; such as hip replacement, spinal surgery etc. etc.)

So what is a toothache?

Simply put, a toothache is pain from a tooth. Pain is a fairly broad term, but we aren’t talking a ‘niggly’ tooth, or a slight discomfort, but more of a throbbing, pounding pain that just doesn’t let up.

What causes a toothache?

There are of course many causes of tooth pain, but for the more generic toothache which usually comes from a singular tooth, the main cause is usually a nerve infection. Once bacteria enter a tooth, the nerve tissue and blood vessels in the nerve chamber become infected and bacteria accumulates and continues to multiply inside the tooth. This can spread all the way down the root of the tooth and try to exit at the bottom of the root. This is often accompanied by the creation of pus, which the body does in order to try and counter-act the bacterial attack. This is often known as ab abscess.

So how does a tooth get infected, and a toothache take place?

A tooth commonly gets infected because of bacterial ingress. The most common ways bacteria will get into a tooth are:

1. Tooth decay (Yes! This is why your dentist is always telling you to get tooth decay fixed sooner rather than later!)
2. A crack or a cracked/broken tooth
3. Exposed dentine due to enamel loss or fracture
4. Traumatic injury
5. Re-infection of existing root canal treatment
6. A filling that is unsatisfactory due to leakage, tooth decay or fracture

Top tips to prevent getting a toothache:

1. See your dentist 6 monthly for regularly for checkups! Prevention is better than cure, and timely treatment can reduce costly and painful side effects!
2. Don’t just see any dentist, choose a dentist whose focus is on prevention rather than just ‘keeping an eye’ on things and waiting for them to get worse.
3. Wear a mouthguard made by a dental professional if you play contact sports to prevent traumatic injuries
4. Make sure you have tooth decay treated as quickly as you can before the decay gets too large and reaches the nerve.
5. If your tooth or filling breaks or falls out, get it seen by your dentist as soon as possible.
6. Invest in a night guard if you clench or grind your teeth. This will help prevent damage to your teeth in the longer term.

So the short answer is, YES! You don’t have to go through such awful pain from a toothache! With the correct preventive care and dental treatment, 99% of the time, all toothaches are preventable!

If you would like to speak to one of our Claremont dentists, who are passionate about prevention and helping people to maintain fantastic oral health, call us now on 6143 5655.

Don’t wait until things get worse and painful! Prevent painful problems by seeing a dentist every 6 months. Make an appointment online now at our Claremont dental clinic using this link.