Dental

There can be a whole lot of reasons why you experience toothaches. Some of these may result from the following: • You may have sensitive teeth so you felt a momentary twinge after you ate or drank something hot, something cold or something sweet. • You may be suffering from sinus problems. In this case, you may notice that the pain is limited to your upper teeth. Also, several teeth may be affected at once. • You have undergone a dental procedure. This may leave the teeth sensitive to temperature changes for a few weeks. • You have an abscessed tooth.

Of these four, the last one is a sure indication of a serious dental problem and requires immediate attention. An abscessed tooth means that the pulp (the living portion) of the tooth died. The pulp contains the blood vessels and the nerves that nourish the tooth. Once it is damaged or unnecessarily exposed, the tooth can be infected and the resulting infection can spread to the gum. In worst cases, the infection can even spread as far as the bone. Let me warn you - a deep cavity, a cracked tooth or a hard blow to the tooth may damage the pulp in as little as 12 hours! To complicate matters further, the pulp does not have the ability to repair itself. So, it is really of utmost importance to seek for immediate dental help when you experience an aching tooth.

When a serious toothache occurs, the pain can be so unbearable that you must visit your dentist. However, there may be times when doing so may be quite impossible. Under these situations, you may try these simple suggestions to deal with the pain:

• Pop up a pill. You may benefit from taking aspirin, acetaminophen or ibuprofen. It will relieve the inflammation that accompanies a toothache, no matter how serious it may be.

• A little touch of oil of cloves may help. To ease the pain, apply a small amount of oil of cloves directly to the aching tooth. This will numb the nerves and may calm the pain for quite some time. Just be cautious in applying it so that it won’t get on your gums. Otherwise, you will feel a burning sensation on your gums that can rival the pain from the toothache!

• Chill it out! A cold compress applied on the outside of your cheeks may reduce the swelling brought about by a serious toothache. Or you can try holding an ice cube or cold water in your mouth to temporarily relieve the pain. But if you have sensitive teeth and you feel that doing this aggravates the condition, simply discontinue its application.

• Clean it up! Rinse your mouth or floss your teeth to remove any remaining food particles. While these may not directly help in easing the pain, it can definitely get rid of food debris that can make problems worse.

• Cover it up. Sometimes, you may feel that the tooth is becoming more sensitive to air. In this case, you may benefit from covering it with gauze or sugarless chewing gum until you can get appropriate dental attention.