Does your tooth hurt? What should you do? A toothache may come and go, but when your tooth aches it gets your full attention in a hurry.
Teeth can hurt from a variety of reasons. The tooth could be cracked; The tooth could have a large cavity or maybe just a small cavity that occurs in a precisely bad place (close to a nerve); The tooth could have an exposed root; There could be an infection around the tooth or within the tooth; Or the tooth or surrounding teeth may be subject to gum disease (periodontal disease).
It is very important that you see a dentist as soon as you can to evaluate the condition. Over-the-counter medicines and pain killers will only mask the problem until the symptoms appear to subside temporarily.
What causes a toothache one day will keep causing it in the future. In fact, if the problem caused one tooth to hurt today the chances are very good that the problem will cause many more to hurt or have problems, soon down the road.
Quick Tips:
- Call us at 419-866-4271 and schedule an emergency dental exam.
- If you cannot make an appointment or come in to see us right away, you may try over-the-counter medicines to calm the symptoms temporarily.
- If you have inflammation around a tooth or swelling directly around the area or the surrounding cheeks or gums, you can try to mitigate this symptom with a strong dose of an anti-inflammatory medicine such as ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil, others). This anti-inflammatory medicine may temporarily reduce both pain and swelling if you take 600 to 800 milligrams (typically 3 or 4 200mg tablets). WARNING: ibuprofen is an NSAID (Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) and NSAIDs can cause serious health problems if taken, if taken regularly, if taken in large doses or if abused. It is not recommended that NSAIDs be taken regularly if dental pain persists.
- This is an obvious indication also that emergency dental services are necessary. Contact us as soon as you can to schedule your emergency dental care.
