what does it mean if your tooth is sensitive to cold
This is a question we are asked all the fourth dimension, and our dentists know how painful and difficult it can be to struggle with temperature sensitivity. In the summer, in that location is aught ameliorate than an ice common cold potable during an Orioles or Nationals game or after a sail on the Chesapeake Bay. In the winter, a hot drink can be soothing and warming for the whole body. Dental sensitivity that prevents you from enjoying your favorite beverages is frustrating, simply you're non alone. Every bit many as 45 million people in the US struggle with dental sensitivity related to temperature, and the majority of these cases can be resolved with at-home care. However, some cases do demand to be addressed by your dentist. If y'all're 1 of the millions of people in the U.s.a. struggling with tooth sensitivity and you lot're set up to savour your favorite hot and cold beverages once again, you lot should decide the underlying crusade and piece of work with your dentist to salve tooth sensitivity with changes to your at-home oral hygiene routine or repair dental damage with in-office dentistry treatments.
Temperature Sensitivity Symptoms
The main symptom is tooth pain when exposed to heat or cold. Some patients report feeling a stabbing hurting. Other people experience a slow, lingering discomfort after exposure to hot or cold beverages. In many cases, the treatment plan for dental sensitivity is determined by the length of time you experience temperature sensitivity after exposure.
Less Than 15 Seconds of Sensitivity
If pain or discomfort lasts merely for a few seconds immediately afterward drinking a hot or common cold beverage, the problem is unlikely to be serious. In these cases, the sensitivity is likely the result of balmy tooth decay (cavities), a loose or lost filling, or minor gum recession. It makes sense to schedule a visit to your dentist as soon as possible, but it does not require emergency dental care.
Sensitivity That Lasts 30 Seconds or More
In these cases, you accept probable suffered permanent damage to the internal structure (lurid) of your tooth. This could have been caused by deep dental decay, a tooth fracture, an accident or trauma, or it could be the result of a serious infection. In any of these cases, it is best to become a dental appointment scheduled immediately for a thorough evaluation – earlier the pain becomes constant and unbearable.
Causes of Dental Sensitivity
When you visit our dental office for tooth sensitivity treatment, the first pace will be determining the underlying cause of the dental sensitivity. While the verbal habit or feel that leads to dental sensitivity will vary from person to person, the underlying causes are typically the same. Each tooth is made up of three layers. The hard, outer layer called the enamel is the tooth's defense force organization, protecting the softer, inner layers of teeth. Immediately below the enamel is the dentin, a tooth layer that contains a number of microscopic tubes that lead into the innermost layer of the molar called the pulp. The nerve system of the tooth is housed inside the pulp. Dental sensitivity to temperature typically occurs when cells within the dentin layers of teeth or the tooth'southward nerve are stimulated by the hot or cold potable.
Some mutual causes of dental temperature sensitivity include the following:
Reasons a Molar is Sensitive to Common cold
- Tooth Disuse – if teeth likewise injure when you lot're chewing, the cold sensitivity may be related to a small cavity (decayed part of tooth).
- Glue Disease – the buildup of plaque on teeth, especially at the gum line, is an early indicator of mucilage disease, and big amounts of plaque on the tooth'due south surfaces can contribute to common cold sensitivity
- Brushing too difficult – placing too much force per unit area on teeth, using annoying toothpastes, or brushing with a hard bristled toothbrush can all ear away tooth enamel leading to common cold sensitivity.
- Teeth grinding and clenching – this bad addiction also called bruxism leads to loss of tooth enamel, chips in teeth, and other dental concerns that crusade cold sensitivity.
- Glue tissue recession – irritation to the nervus of the tooth housed in the inner pulp layers of teeth can pb to cold sensitivity. The thinnest part of the enamel covers the tooth roots, so when gums recede exposing the roots, teeth are more likely to be sensitive to cold.
- Cracks in teeth – small-scale cracks or crevices in teeth can develop into larger fissures every bit the tooth enamel expands and contracts with exposure to temperature changes. These cracks are another access betoken to the tooth's nerve, leading to cold sensitivity.
Mutual Reasons a Tooth is Sensitive to Heat
- Dental treatments – teeth whitening is one of the near common treatments that leads to heat sensitivity, just just almost any procedure tin can crusade sensitivity to warm drinks, including teeth cleanings, root planing, and dental crown or filling placement. This is perfectly normal immediately post-obit a dental procedure, but if information technology continues for more than than a few weeks or gets worse, contact our dental office.
- Consuming an acidic diet – acids in java, tomato sauce, vino, and other foods and beverages consumed on a regular footing pb to enamel loss that tin crusade sensitivity to hot beverages.
- Chronic oral health concerns – 80% of molar sensitivity starts at the gum line, so it's no surprise that many people with sensitivity to heat are struggling with mucilage disease and soft tissue recession.
At-Habitation Tooth Sensitivity Solutions
If yous're experiencing mild temperature sensitivity, making some changes to your daily routine may be enough to reduce your dental discomfort.
Some changes yous can make include:
- Use a straw – instead of assuasive the cold or hot liquid to touch the teeth, use a straw to pull the liquid in past the teeth, reducing sensitivity.
- Reduce your consumption of acidic foods – acidic foods and beverages are tough on enamel and they can be especially irritating to the more sensitive dentin and pulp layers of teeth, so reducing your consumption of these foods and beverages can help y'all avoid sensitivity.
- Alter your toothbrush – hard bristled toothbrushes and brushing too difficult in general can irritate teeth and increase sensitivity. Changing to a softer bristled toothbrush and taking care to avoid brushing too difficult tin can convalesce temperature sensitivity.
- Use toothpaste for sensitive teeth – in that location are many toothpastes available that are created specifically to target dental sensitivity, and ingredients in these toothpastes can significantly reduce hurting when consuming hot and cold beverages and improve overall oral health.
- Change your mouthwash – some mouthwashes are hard on teeth, but there are many fluoridated mouthwashes that can reduce sensitivity without irritating the sensitive tissues in the dentin or pulp layers of teeth.
- Vesture a mouthguard – if you regularly grind or clench your teeth at night, make sure you wear a mouthguard to avoid unnecessary dental wearable and subtract your risk for chips and cracks in teeth.
How Dentists Can Help with Dental Sensitivity
If your dental sensitivity doesn't improve after a few days or information technology gets worse, y'all should contact our team to notice out more well-nigh professional treatments to meliorate comfort. Some of the options we may recommend include:
- Fluoride therapy – at-home applications of fluoride treatments and toothpastes that combine fluoride with other ingredients similar carboxymethyl cellulose, hydroxyethyl cellulose, and polyethylene glycol have been proven to decrease dental sensitivity. Additionally, your dentist may recommend in-office silver diamine fluoride awarding during your half-dozen month dental exams to subtract chronic dental sensitivity.
- Root canal – severe toothache and sensitivity often occurs as the event of damage or decay accessing the sensitive nerve structures inside the pulp layers of teeth. When this occurs, nosotros'll demand perform an avant-garde restorative dental treatment called root canal therapy. This procedure involves removing the damaged nerve and pulp tissue. So, nosotros disinfect and refill the inside of the tooth. Finally, a dental crown is placed to strengthen and protect the root culvert treated tooth.
- Gum grafts – if mucilage affliction and receding soft tissue exposes the tooth roots causing dental sensitivity, we may recommend a gum graft. This surgical procedure will protect the tooth roots, ameliorate overall health, and eliminate sensitivity.
- Dental restorations – if there is a crevice, scrap, or crenel, we will repair the tooth, using a tooth-colored filling, inlay, onlay, or dental crown. This will protect your damaged tooth and improve sensitivity.
Grab the Hot & Cold Drinks
At the terminate of the twenty-four hour period, the goal of this blog is to aid yous observe a practical answer to your questions virtually sensitivity when drinking hot or cold beverages. If balmy sensitivity to temperature is keeping you away from enjoying your favorite drinks, your trunk is telling you something. Listen. It is giving you an early warning betoken that your teeth need some attention, so make it bear on with our team to have care of the problem before it becomes severe.
Meet the McCarl Dental Group
Since 1924, the McCarl Dental Group has offered Greenbelt dental patients help with achieving and maintaining their optimal level of oral health. If you have a tooth that's sensitive to cold and hot beverages, our knowledgeable dentists and dentistry team can help you lot relieve the hurting and restore your grin. Each of our dentists brings years of education and experience to the dental office along with a dedication to continue the McCarl family'southward tradition of providing exceptional dentistry services
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