Most people take the ability to chew food comfortably for granted until they bite down and experience tooth pain or sensitivity in Ajax. Healthy teeth shouldn’t feel painful, so if you find it uncomfortable or experience dental pain when biting or chewing food, it’s a sign you need to see a dentist. Dental pain can indicate a problem such as tooth decay and does require a proper diagnosis and appropriate treatment.
What Can Cause Pain When Chewing?
Several factors can cause pain when chewing; sometimes, the reason might not be too serious and may be easy to treat. For example, it could be due to tooth enamel erosion, where the outer coating of tooth enamel protecting the tooth has become eroded and worn. When this occurs, any sensations such as hot or cold or sweet or sour can penetrate your tooth more easily, reaching the tooth nerve and causing sensitivity or pain.
Gum recession in Pickering can expose the tooth roots that aren’t covered by protective tooth enamel, so unpleasant sensations are more easily transmitted to the tooth nerve. When gum recession occurs, it can be due to gum disease or brushing your teeth too hard. Appropriate restorative treatment can help to treat any signs of gum disease and protect exposed tooth roots.
Tooth decay in Whitby is another potential reason, especially if a cavity in a tooth has penetrated deep into the dentin. In this case, treatment may be as simple as filling the tooth. If the tooth decay is severe, it can reach the tooth nerve, causing an infection that affects the dental pulp and the root canals extending into your tooth roots. Early treatment at this stage may help save the tooth, using root canal therapy to remove the dead or dying pulp tissues and to eliminate the dental infection in Oshawa. However, sometimes the infection can worsen, causing a dental abscess.
A dental abscess in Newcastle is a painful pocket of pus that can develop around the tooth root and may be visible as a small pimple on the gum. Abscesses can be extremely painful, especially when you bite or chew on the affected tooth. Sometimes a tooth can be severely cracked, and the crack opens up when you bite down, letting in harmful bacteria that can penetrate the tooth nerve and cause pain.
Getting Treatment for Your Painful Tooth
If you have noticed a tooth has become painful or uncomfortable when you bite down, please don’t delay and schedule an appointment with us at Durham Dental Solutions. Our dentist can gently examine the tooth and will probably take a dental x-ray to identify the cause. Hopefully, we can provide appropriate restorative treatment to save the tooth. You can rest assured this is always our preferred option. However, sometimes a tooth is too badly damaged to save, which could be the case if you have a severe tooth infection like a dental abscess in Newcastle or if a tooth is severely cracked through the tooth root. In this case, we may recommend a tooth extraction.
What Happens If I Need the Tooth Removed?
We realize losing a tooth is upsetting, but there are several ways to replace it. One of the most popular solutions is to have a dental implant in Clarington. Durham Dental Solutions is experienced in planning and placing dental implants. Sometimes we can even remove the failing tooth and insert the dental implant during one smooth, pain-free appointment. The dental implant in Courtice can then be restored with a crown, giving you teeth that look good and, importantly, will no longer hurt when you chew.
