Does a toothache mean I have other bad teeth?

The answer is, very likely YES!

Most of us are subject to toothaches at some point or another in our lives. Some occur as slight uncomfortable situations, and others can result in unbearable pain. Whatever the magnitude of pain, toothaches can mean only one thing – a bad tooth, or maybe several teeth!

A toothache is also an important indication to identify possible problems in your mouth or other bad teeth that need attention. If you are experiencing sharp, irregular toothaches, this is likely due to tooth sensitivity to cold or hot foods, gum recession, erosion, or a small cavity. However, if you ignore these small toothaches, it can weaken, crack, break, and even infect the dental pulp. A small cavity can be easily treated with a dental filling, while larger cavities may require an onlay or a crown.

If you are experiencing a strong thumping toothache, it may be an infection or abscess. This is a somewhat serious condition and is most often an indication that the inner living pulp of the tooth is infected by bacterial toxins. When this invasion of the pulp occurs, it means that the pulp ( nerve and blood supply) are dying or are already dead and are decomposing ( abscess). In this case, your dentist would advise you to either do a root canal procedure or extraction since it’s likely to be infected, with possible visible swelling.

On the other hand, a severe toothache while eating means tooth decay or a tooth fracture caused by biting. A chronic toothache is nerve damage caused by grinding your teeth, severe tooth decay, or strain to the teeth through injury. This is a situation where your body’s defenses are working at their maximum effort, but is ultimately fighting a losing battle. At some point this chronic problem will often become quite acute and will force you to seek help from your dentist as mentioned previously.

Pain is not a good tool to measure the seriousness of tooth decay. Even though you may feel slight pain, it may be possible that the tooth decay is serious. Advanced gum disease leads to loss of bone around the teeth, forming deep gum pockets where bacteria live, causing gum infection, swelling, and pain. The bacterial toxins dissolve the bone around the roots and eventually you lose the tooth.

Sometimes you feel pain too late to save the tooth. So pain in a tooth or the gums around it, whether slight or severe, is a serious warning that there may be similar problems in the teeth around it.

Thankfully, dentistry today easily finds the causes and effective answers to soothe your toothache. So see your dentist immediately to save that smile!

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