What Is Toothache, Its Causes, and Symptoms and How to Prevent It

Toothache is a common problem in dentistry. It is also known as odontalgia. Toothache is a pain in or around teeth or gums caused by dental cavity. Mouth is a gateway of human body and good dental health is a great way to keep your whole body in healthy and sound condition. Dental health is associated with all aspects of health and functioning of your mouth especially the teeth and gums. A smile will gain you ten more years of life is an old proverb that is well suited to the current scenario of dental health.

What is Toothache?

From inside, teeth are made up of soft tissues that contain sensitive nerves and blood vessels that are called dental pulp. It is protected by layers of tissues which are called enamel. Meeting of bacteria and sugar causes cavities because when you eat sugary food bacteria convert the sugar into acids and that acids make small holes in enamel due to which the pulp is irritated and it cause toothache.

Factors causing Toothache:

-Gum diseases like gingivitis are one of the factors that cause toothache.

-Formation of plaque gradually decays the tooth and causes pain in it.

-Tooth injury, sensitivity of teeth, chewing gum and teething in babies can be the causes of toothache.

-Other factors contributing to toothache are grinding of teeth, dental cavity and leaking of filling.

Points to Remember:

1- Never avoid toothache which lasts more than two days because it can be the symptom of heart, ear or sinus diseases.

2- Inflammation of the sinuses causes toothache in the upper jaws and ear causes pain around the jaws. Tooth and jaws pain are the symptoms of heart disease in heart patients.

Symptoms of Toothache:

Severity of toothache can be varied in terms of pain intensity and it can range from chronic and mild to sharp pain.

You can experience sharp throbbing pain in tooth.

You will feel swelling around the gums with headache or fever and while eating you can suffer from severe pain.

Another symptom of toothache is bleeding around the teeth or gums.

If toothache remains more than 3 days and you don't take your toothache seriously, pulp inside your tooth consequently infected or will die.

Steps to Fight and Prevent Toothache:

Following are some steps which are useful for the prevention of toothache:

1- Brush your teeth twice a day with fluoride-based toothpaste.

2- Floss between teeth.

3- Eat food that contains less sugar and starch.

4- Avoid the use of soda and acidic drinks as much as you can.

5- If you are suffering from toothache avoid very hot or cold food because they will increase the intensity of your pain.

6- Use diet which is rich in vitamin c because vitamin c helps to absorb more calcium and phosphorus and this will strengthen the protective layer i.e. enamel.

7- Visit your dentist for dental check up twice in a year.