What Do You Do If Your Tooth Is Unbearable?

Toothaches have a knack for bringing someone’s life to a screeching halt. This is true, especially if you have a cracked or broken tooth. You will have to drop everything and make your way to visit our dentist near you, who offers emergency dentistry in McArthur, CA.

Sometimes having a broken tooth might not cause a lot of pain, and you can try to soldier on while you make your way to visit our dentist in McArthur, CA. But in most cases, a broken tooth will cause excruciating pain, and you will need to know a few tricks that will reduce the pain intensity to help you focus on getting the help you need.

Causes of Tooth Nerve Pain

The tooth has four main layers, enamel, dentin, tooth pulp, and cementum. The enamel covers the entire tooth and is the protective layer. The inner layers of the tooth are way softer than the enamel. The pulp houses nerves, blood vessels, and connective tissue essential for teeth growth and nourishment. Whenever the pulp is exposed, you are bound to experience pain and bleeding.

Tooth nerve pain can fall into one of the following categories:

• Dentinal sensitivity. This is nerve pain that is more widespread and occurs when the enamel is eroded or damaged, and external stimuli such as cold or heat reach the nerve endings located in the dentin. This kind of tooth nerve pain is usually brought about by receding gums, teeth whitening products, and untreated cavities.
• Pulpal sensitivity. This nerve pain is more focused on a single tooth and is more likely to happen because of issues affecting the tooth pulp. Causes of pulp sensitivity may include tooth decay, pressure from teeth clenching, recent tooth filling, and broken, cracked, or chipped tooth.

How to Stop Tooth Nerve Pain

Stopping the nerve pain is dependent on the cause of the tooth pain. If the breakage is not severe, our dentist near you may opt for less invasive treatments, which include:

• These are excellent treatments that our dentist can use to fix minor chips, cracks, or breakages on the exterior part of the tooth. They can also be used when significant tooth damage involves the dentin.
• Root Canal Therapy. This treatment is effective when the damage has reached the pulp. The pulp that houses the damaged nerves will be removed and then covered using a filling or dental crown.

If the injury is severe, our dentist may recommend that you replace the missing tooth. This would mean using a denture, bridge, or tooth implant to replace the damaged tooth.

First Aid for a Broken Tooth

As a rule of thumb, when you have a cracked, chipped, or broken tooth, you will need to seek emergency dentistry in McArthur, CA. This is because you might assume that the damage isn’t extensive and might have underestimated the issue. Our dentist will assess the damage and treat it to prevent further damage. If you are experiencing pain, it means that your pulp is affected.

But before you get to our office, you might need to do the following:

• Collect the broken pieces. You might need to check where each piece is that you might show our dentist. This is because teeth pieces can be put back together if all the pieces are found
• Gently bite down gauze. You will likely bleed and be in pain when you have a broken tooth. If this is the case, then you might have to bite on a fresh piece of gauze to stop the bleeding and ease the pain
• Contact our dentist. Before you make your way to our office, ensure that you have contacted our dentist to prepare and be ready to treat you in the shortest possible time.
• You can use pain-relievers that you can buy from your local store as you come to our office
• You can also try dental anesthetics that you can find at your local drug store

Make sure that you avoid certain actions that can exacerbate the issue, such as:

• Taking very hot and cold beverages since they can cause more pain
• Drinking acid beverages which can irritate the nerves and make you feel more pain
• Biting hard foods that can cause further damage to the teeth
• Consuming sugary foods and drinks that can irritate the inner layer of the teeth

Contact us at Fall River Valley Dentist if you have a broken tooth.