Toothache after a filling - is it normal?
introduction
Anyone who has ever suffered from toothache knows this feeling more than unpleasant. An appointment at the dentist should be one way out of the pain.
This removes the caries and fills the tooth. So everything is fine, right? Unfortunately not.
It still hurts, but it can't be tooth decay anymore - why does the tooth still hurt?
Toothache can be caused by many different things. Only a dentist can determine what exactly is causing the toothache. In the vast majority of cases, a carious lesion (commonly known as tooth decay) responsible.
Carious lesions can spread very far until they finally become noticeable. Then the damage is usually very large and a little more difficult to repair. Regular check-ups at the dentist, which should be carried out once a year, help to identify tooth decay at the early stages and to prevent greater damage to the tooth.
The tooth is made up of the outer layer of enamel that surrounds the dentin core. The pulp lies completely protected inside the dentin. The pulp contains, among other things, the nerve of the tooth. From here, nerve fibers are sent into the dentin and pain stimuli are passed on. The pulp also ensures the nutrition of the tooth. Blood vessels and different types of cells ensure that the tooth gets everything it needs to function well in the mouth.
Toothache is felt through the nerve inside a tooth. If the nerve is irritated, this is perceived as pain. Toothache is relatively common in the first few days after a filling.
Depending on the type of filling, toothache is more likely or less likely. The larger and deeper the extent of the caries, the closer it comes to the tooth nerve.
During the removal of caries and, above all, the preparation with the dental drills, mechanical irritations in the form of vibrations or heat generated can occur. During the preparation of the tooth enamel (Melt conditioning) to use acid.
Chemical irritation of the nerve is possible here. The most commonly used plastic filling itself can also be the cause of toothache. The plastic used consists of monomers, these are connected by means of UV light and thus hardened. Monomers that remain individually can irritate the tooth nerve and cause pain. A filling that is too high can also be the cause, as it can overload the tooth.
Toothache after a filling has to be differentiated from nerve inflammation (Pulpitis / Tooth pulp). The former is temporary and the tooth still feels cold, although the nerve inflammation is irreversible and the tooth here has no cold sensation and is therefore dead. Pulpitis requires root canal treatment.
Toothache after a filling usually manifests itself as Hypersensitivityso that pain especially when biting or when:
- Sweet
- Sour
- Hot one
- Cold
be perceived. The pain itself is rather bright and stabbing and may initially be permanent.
Therapeutically, you can cool the affected jaw section after a tooth filling or take painkillers for severe toothache (e.g. ibuprofen 400mg).
It should be noted that toothache occurs after a filling after the anesthetic has subsided, as it represents a temporary hypersensitivity of the tooth nerve and that an improvement should be seen after a few days. If the pain is permanent or throbbing, which often leads to waking up from sleep, a renewed visit to the dentist is recommended to rule out pulpitis (inflammation of the roots of the teeth).
In summary, it can be said that the deeper the tooth decay and thus the closer the nerve is, the more likely subsequent pain is. However, they are only temporary in nature.
Illustrations toothache after a filling
Toothache after filling
(by biting, sweet, sour,
hot or cold)
- Dental caries (carious lesion) -
Caries dentium - Access to the pulp
is exposed
(Precise high-tech instruments) - Cleaning with antibacterial solution
(Special rinsing solutions or gels) - Root canal comes with a
special filling material tight
locked - Tooth with a filling or
Seal the crown (ceramic,
Plastics, metal alloys,
Amalgam)
What helps against complaints:
A - Prudent cooling
(max. half an hour)
B - chamomile or mint tea
C - tea tree oil
(not too often, don't swallow)
D - analgesics (pain relievers) -
Ibuprofen, paracetamol, aspirin
E - mouthwashes with clove extract
You can find an overview of all Dr-Gumpert images at: medical illustrations
causes
Often no pain is felt immediately after the dentist's visit, and the patient leaves the practice satisfied. Pain only becomes noticeable when the anesthesia subsides.
For these reasons, the tooth can be sensitive after filling:
- The caries, i.e. the softened and infected substance, is removed using drills, which must be guided with light pressure. The pulp, colloquially the tooth nerve, can be irritated.
- To create an adhesive bond between the tooth and the filling, an etching gel is applied, which can also irritate the pulp.
- The tooth filling material itself can be irritating in rare cases.
- If the filling is too high, the tooth is overloaded and hurts.
- The soft tissue can also be easily injured by the filling therapy, but it recovers quickly.
How long does the pain last?
In most cases, a filling is necessary due to a carious defect. Some patients continue to complain of slight toothache for a certain period of time even after successful filling therapy.Basically, this toothache is caused by irritation in the area of the oral mucous membranes, the gums or tiny nerve fibers after a filling.
Depending on which of these structures is affected after the filling, the duration of the toothache also differs. If a filling is necessary due to caries, the depth of the carious defect also has a decisive influence on the duration of the toothache.
In general, however, affected patients can assume that toothache should not last two to three days after a filling. If the symptoms persist even after the filling has been completed, the attending dentist should urgently be consulted again.
Pressure pain after a tooth filling
In addition to the temporary toothache, a feeling of pressure is one of the most frequently described phenomena that occur after a filling has been placed. Similar to persistent toothache, the pressure perceived by the patient can also be attributed to irritation of the oral mucous membranes, the gums or the nerve fibers, which can also be triggered by the new filling material.
This pressure should completely disappear after a few days. If a patient notices pressure that lasts longer than three days after the filling has been completed, this could be a first indication of the development of inflammatory processes. For this reason, the attending dentist should be visited again for an exact clarification.
Throbbing pain after a tooth filling
Toothache comes in many forms, depending on its cause. They range from a bright, pointed to a drawing, burning to a dull and / or pulse-synchronized throbbing pain, which is accompanied by a disruptive feeling of pressure and often with swelling.
Most patients complain that the pain is worse in the evening than in the morning and occurs especially when lying down. This can be caused by a dead dental nerve be. Then one must Root canal treatment after which the feeling of pressure can continue for up to three days. Pain tablets can help, but a supply of antibiotics is usually not necessary.
Other reasons for a throbbing pain can be existing wisdom teeth as these can easily ignite. Removal of the teeth is then urgently recommended. But also a so-called Periodontal disease, an inflammation of the tooth support system caused by bacteria, can cause the unpleasant pain, especially if it is inadvertently not noticed during a filling therapy. In both cases antibiotics must be clarified with the attending physician.
What helps against the toothache?
Patients who are also successful after filling continue to suffer from toothache, the question is often asked what helps against these complaints. There are toothache in the first few days after the filling is applied little concern. Affected patients can get through careful cooling find a remedy quickly. In this context, however, care should be taken to ensure that the Never apply coolant directly to the skin is placed. Ideally, a small cooling pad should be wrapped in a kitchen towel and placed on the cheek. However, since the painful tooth should only be cooled for a short period of time (about half an hour), further tips on how to reduce toothache after a filling can be used.
Home remedies for toothache are very popular.
Many patients use it Chamomile or mint tea to relieve toothache that persists even after a filling. That too Chew on dried rosemary leaves should be something that helps with toothache after a filling. Rosemary leaves are particularly suitable for this soothing effect for irritation in the area of the Dental nerve exercise.
Tea tree oil can also be used, but only with extreme caution. It is best to soak a cotton swab with the oil and then dab the sore tooth and the surrounding gums with it. Do not do it too often and make sure that no oil is swallowed!
Mouthwashes with Clove extract have an analgesic effect. A clove that is bitten into in the mouth and then brought to the painful area works just as well.
Should the Pain persistsmust again dentist to be visited. It may well be that the filling is a bit too high and therefore the tooth remains very sensitive.
The dentist lets the patient bite on occlusion foil (a colored piece of paper that marks the points on the tooth surface that are bitten when biting) and checks them again Fill height. If the fillings are too high, they will be ground in and the pain should go away within a day.
If the tooth is suspected of being on the Filling material reacts and causes the pain, the filling must be replaced. However, this is never the case with modern composite materials.
The patient develops after a very deep tooth decay with subsequent filling, dull, throbbing pain that is so bad that he even wakes up at night, so he has to have one more often Root canal treatment be initiated. The pulp was so irritated and irritated by the drilling that it can no longer calm down on its own and that's why Pain which can only be eliminated by removing the pulp.
Analgesics (Painkiller) how Ibuprofen, Paracetamol or aspirin can relieve the pain. However, your intake should only limited take place to avoid liver damage or the like. These pain relievers are available in any pharmacy without a prescription.
With aspirin it should be noted that it anticoagulant effect Has. So if another visit to the dentist or another procedure is planned, aspirin should be stopped the day before.
You might also be interested in that: Toothache after drilling
homeopathy
Toothache should always be treated by a dentist!
Toothache after a filling can be over a short period of time also good with the help of some substances from the field of homeopathy be alleviated.
The drugs most commonly used for toothache are homeopathy Arnica, Onion juice, Belladonna and rhododendron.
Another tried and tested homeopathic remedy is a Acupressure pointthat can be pressed after fillings in case of toothache. It's located in the dimple between your nose and upper lip and should be pressed firmly for a minute or two.
However, the patient should be aware that the use of remedies from homeopathy is one timely visit to the dentist in no case can replace, especially if the pain persists or becomes too great.
How long is toothache normal after a filling?
Toothache kicking after a filling occur very frequently and are inherently normal. How severe the pain is depends on how deep the carious destruction has penetrated. The tooth is very sensitive after the dental procedure, which is why you should be particularly careful not to eat food that is too hard, sweet, sour or extremely hot or cold in order to give the tooth the opportunity to regenerate. The pain can be constant for the first few hours after treatment.
This hypersensitivity can about three to seven days to several weeks stop. It is only important that the pain does not worsen. But they should last longer or rather feel dull or throbbing, a renewed visit to the dentist is inevitable, as it is an overlooked so-called tooth root inflammation (Periodontal disease) could act. Long-term irritation of the tooth can lead to its death, which is why it is always important to observe the progression and duration of the pain and, if necessary, to have it clarified.
Toothache when chewing after a filling
If a tooth is filled with a filling, it can lead to pain, especially when eating and drinking. These have various causes.
On the one hand, it can be because the Filling too high and therefore bothers you when you bite. There is therefore too much stress on the tooth. The filling was probably not ground in enough by the dentist. Another option is that the artificial crown is too lowso that the bit doesn't fit together properly. Even the smallest bumps or changes in familiar situations lead to the muscles cramping or the temporomandibular joint not being in the correct position.
The opposite tooth can also start to hurt over time due to the high pressure. That is why it is always important to observe the correct height of the teeth. However, it can be difficult to determine whether something is interfering with the anesthesia. If necessary, the attending dentist must subsequently shorten or increase the filling after the anesthesia has subsided.
Another reason for pain when chewing is a Grinding trauma the tooth by removing its substance with the drill. Even if the filling therapy has already been completed, painful reactions can occur after a while, especially when chewing hard food. In addition, the toothache can arise because the Filling leaking at their edges and thus the smallest components of the food collect in it. Depending on how long this condition lasts or the longer the filling has existed, what is known as secondary, i.e. subsequent, caries can occur, which destroys the teeth under the filling. This then causes the typical uncomfortable pulling caries pain.
However, if the pain occurs immediately after placing the filling, especially one Amalgam filling It can also be that these worsen when eating very hot or very cold food, which is due to the fact that amalgam, as a metal, conducts cold and heat into the vicinity of the sensitive tooth pulp. Even particularly sweet or sour drinks, such as lemonades or juices, can penetrate microscopic channels in the tooth and trigger the pain.
Toothache from nerve irritation
The oral cavity, including the teeth, is generally an extremely dense space supplied with small branches of the fifth cranial nerve. The nerve fibers penetrate the tooth root from below through small holes in the jaw and then lie inside the tooth, which is why it is very sensitive to the smallest external influences.
If a tooth has been destroyed by caries, it has to be removed or a dental one Root canal treatment with subsequent filling therapy. The files, instruments, drills, rinsing solutions and other devices used can lead to a mechanical, chemical and thermal irritation of the tooth nerve come. Especially with a plastic filling, an acid is used that irritates the tooth. The tooth decay may have penetrated so deep that it irritated the nerve itself.
Both are then felt as pain. In most cases, such an operation is performed under local anesthesia of the nerve, which is why the toothache is only felt at home after the anesthesia has subsided.
Nocturnal toothache after filling
Many patients under persistent toothache complain about a filling, report one Intensification of the complaints during the night. In some cases, the toothache even occurs after a filling is placed entirely only at night on.
In fact, this perception of the affected patient is not based on pure imagination but can scientifically explained become. In this context, one has to be aware that toothache is mostly closely related inflammatory processes within the oral cavity stand. Various inflammation mediators can do this to bind to pain receptors and in this way to convey a pain perception. The release of these inflammatory mediators is in turn controlled by a strong blood circulation promoted.
Because the blood circulation within the oral cavity increases at night due to the lying position, toothache after a filling is felt to be more severe while sleeping. For the same reason, the toothache can also only perceived at night become. Another explanation for the appearance of toothache after a filling, which only manifests itself at night, is the fact that inflammatory processes to a certain extent temperature-dependent are. If the patient lies on the painful cheek for a longer period of time at night, the tissue overheats. As a result, the Increased release of inflammatory mediators and the patient experiences a toothache only at night.
Toothache and earache after a filling
Ear pain and headaches after filling therapy are not uncommon. If you keep your mouth open for a long time or fillings that are too high, it often happens Tension in the masticatory muscles, which also radiates into the temporomandibular joint and is perceived as an earache.
These structures are anatomically close to the ear, more precisely close to the so-called auditory tuba, a tubular connection between the oral cavity and the middle ear. If the injection of the anesthetic syringe results in a bruise or, in the worst case, an abscess caused by germs that have been carried over, the auditory tuba is constricted. Earache is the result. Also one severe irritation of the mandibular nerveEspecially in the case of treatments in the molar area of both jaws, which supply both the masticatory muscles and the tensioner of the eardrum, pain in the back of the nerves can be triggered. These can easily be treated with painkillers after consulting the treating dentist.
