We don’t like visiting the dentist too much, it costs us work. The recommendation of the specialists is to do it every 6 months but, according to the College of Dentists and Stomatologists of Madrid, only 44% of people comply with this routine. We end up enduring the pain, using ibuprofen as if there were no tomorrow. It is a major mistake: mouth problems, if left untreated, can be dangerous, and not everything is tooth decay, some ailments can cause more serious pain and cause serious illness.
“In the mouth there are many conditions that can occur with pain, a pain that is also often accompanied by inflammation,” says the president of the College of Dentists of Seville. Although tooth decay is the most common cause of dental pain, it is not the only one. The president of the General Council of Dentists, Oscar Castro, stresses that “the pain may have an inflammatory origin (due to periodontal diseases), infectious (due to a dental abscess), a mechanical origin (due to hypersensitivity, bruxism, fissures in the tooth, the simple eruption of wisdom teeth) or for more serious pathologies such as cancer in the oral cavity.” These are the most frequent reasons.
When the problem is not the tooth but the gum
Sometimes, when we think we should go to the dentist because our teeth hurt, that feeling is really a reflection of a gum problem. Gum diseases are mainly caused by accumulation of bacterial plaque, it is an inflammatory response of the gingival tissues. But we have to differentiate gingivitis from periodontitis. While the former is limited to inflammation, redness and bleeding of the gums, periodontitis also affects the supporting bone tissue of the tooth, causing the surrounding bone to be lost and which will end with the loss of the tooth. That is why it is essential to take care of gingival health, not to allow the appearance of inflammation (gingivitis) that can evolve into an irreversible process (periodontitis).
What if the pain is hypersensitivity?
Dental sensitivity is, along with that of caries, the most frequent pain for which you go to a dentist’s office. It is an acute pain of short duration and always caused by chemical, thermal or tactile stimuli. As explained by the president of the General Council of Dentists, “there are several causes that can cause dental sensitivity: from excessively strong brushing (which causes abrasion of the enamel) to use toothbrushes with very hard filaments or applying excessive pressure on brushing, passing for a retraction of gums, lack of teeth, bruxism or an abuse of acid intake, “such as soda, energy drinks, soy sauce, vinegar.
The spokesman of the Andalusian Council of Dental Associations clarifies that the degree of sensitivity varies greatly from case to case, “due to the cause that causes it and the pain threshold itself, which is individual. But dental sensitivity It is treated and consists of blocking the dentin tubules (which is an intermediate tooth tissue, between the enamel and the pulp) that are exposed to the air and are responsible for this sensitivity. Most importantly, in addition to performing this treatment, is to eliminate the cause that causes it to prevent it from coming back, “says the professional.
Infections, diabetes and coronary heart disease
Some diseases can affect the immune system and favor the onset of oral infectious problems. And vice versa, certain infectious problems of the mouth can lead to serious problems of general health. Every time there is pain or a condition that is not normal in the mouth, you should visit the dentist. It seems that there is a relationship of gum diseases with pathologies such as diabetes or coronary heart disease. In the case of diabetes there is a bi-directional relationship. On the one hand, suffering from diabetes increases the risk of periodontal disease, since it is a pathology that alters the inflammatory response against the microorganisms in the gum and makes it more difficult for the inflammation to go down and for the gum to recover. On the other, periodontitis can affect diabetes, impairing blood glucose level control and making it worse.
Grinding of teeth, origin of muscle and headache
Unconsciously clenching the jaw and grinding the teeth, or what is the same, suffering from bruxism, is something that 70% of Spaniards do, according to the Official College of Dentists. It is an involuntary act, which usually occurs while we sleep, although it can also occur during the day due to stress without us noticing it, but it is a gesture that eventually ends up in pain, since. It causes the progressive wear of the hard tissues of the tooth (enamel and dentine), so bruxism is usually accompanied by discomfort or even headache and neck (due to the contraction effect of his muscles).