ADVICE FOR TOOTHACHE

How can toothache be prevented and how can you deal with it?

Toothache is one of the worst pains and it may suddenly occur during your summer holidays. It is difficult to ignore toothache. This is the reason why you should exactly know how do deal with it, as it is far more difficult that a fellow dentist always accompanies you.

What must be your immediate actions?

Communication with us can take place seven days a week and almost all day long. If, for some very serious reason you cannot communicate with us, you should visit the closest drugstore, avoiding to take the various medicines your friends recommend to you. Ask for an anti-inflammatory painkiller, after having informed the pharmacist about every other medicine you are taking at the time. Thus, possible interactions between medicines are avoided.
The first dose of the medicine must be higher so that it can be effective.

Can toothache ruin your holidays?

Even if the pain goes away after the first dose of painkiller, you must continue to take it for 2-3 days, so that the possibility that the inflammation is spread is reduced. You must take the painkiller even when the pain is not that intense, not only when the pain is acute. Meanwhile, you should avoid diving to great dephts (for example 4-5 meters), because this could worsen the inflammation (during this phase, and in certain cases of inflammation, you can relieve pain with ice water or even ice cubes).

However, if after two days, and despite the fact that you use painkillers, the pain persists and there is swelling (which is a characteristic sign of an abscess), you may need to take antibiotics. You should consult us again so that any possible drug allergy is avoided. When the swelling is at an initial stage, you can relieve pain by using warm water, warm chamomile tea or warm salt water as a mouth rinse. In the case the inflammation spreads or if you have fever, difficulty breathing and you feel exhausted, you must immediately visit a doctor.

As soon as you return from your vacations, visit your doctor, even if the pain is resolved. Specialists remark that every acute inflammation can be transformed into a permanent one, while inflammations tend to spread silently. For this reason, the primary cause of the inflammation must be effectively treated.

I hurt my tooth

The tooth broke:
If the facture is large and reaches the nerve, you will feel intense pain, so it is good that you take an anti-inflammatory painkiller, for preventive reasons. Visit immediately the closest dentist.

The tooth is displaced:
If the tooth is displaced but it didn’t fall out of its position (out of the mouth), try to push it back into place with your hand. Take an anti-inflammatory painkiller and visit a dentist.

The tooth fell out:

If the tooth falls out of its position and falls on a dirty surface, wash it well and put it in salt water (or milk or fresh water or even back in your mouth if nothing of the rest is available) and visit the dentist immediately. If the tooth has fallen out but is still clean, wash it and put it back into place until you visit the dentist.

Jaw injury:
If the hit was so strong that your jaw has been dislocated, you must immediately try to put your jaw softly back into place, then take a strong painkiller and keep your mouth closed and do not speak until you reach the hospital.

DENTIST ENDODONTIST CONSTANTINOS LAGHIOS, D.D.S., M.S.

TOOTHACHE DURING HOLIDAYS? - How can it be prevented and how can you deal with it?

What happens if the teeth….complain?

Many people experience the unpleasant feeling of toothache during their holidays. The dentist-endodontist Dr. Constantinos Laghios gives you basic instructions so that this unpleasant experience does not ruin your holidays.

As he mentions, if there are teeth that ache or are sensitive to a cold or hot stimulus it is better that they are examined clinically and radiographically with a digital panoramic X-ray before the beginning of the summer holidays. Many times, pain due to a hot or cold stimulus can be a sign of the existence of dental caries under a tooth filling. These teeth will eventually ache, sooner or later, and it is good that they are filled or that a root canal treatment is performed in the case that the decay is too extended. Teeth that ache, not necessarily after a hot or cold stimulus, will require treatment.

The feeling of pressure or of a slight numbness in a mouth area is also a sign of some kind of inflammation that must be examined by the dentist, despite the fact that these symptoms are occasional and not quite intense. Broken teeth or broken fillings, despite the fact that they may not hurt and that they haven’t caused any problems for a long time period, must be examined. As we relax during our holidays, a larger fracture may be caused in our tooth, which will be accompanied by intense pain. Finally, a radiographic and clinical control by our dentist before the beginning of our vacations will minimize the possibility that our valuable days of relax are ruined.

However, if a tooth aches after our vacations has begun, we must visit a dentist at the place of our vacations.

Early symptoms of pain are the sensitivity to biting or when our teeth contact each other. If the pain we feel has the characteristics of a pulse, that is if we feel a throbbing pain, we can take a painkiller for two-three days. The anti-inflammatory action of medicines is required until the inflammation of the pulp is resolved. If the pain is deep, towards the tooth apex, and we feel that our tooth “gets taller” in our mouth, we possibly have to do with some abscess in development and must take an antibiotics apart from the painkiller. The same must be done in the case that we feel that our tooth is swelling.

The first dose of antibiotics should be a double dose so that we can achieve its most rapid possible concentration in blood. We must not forget that 36-48 hours are needed for the full action of the antibiotics. The next step is to visit an endodontics clinic for endodontic (root canal) treatment (resection).

If a part of a tooth or a filling breaks, we should remove it in some way, because it is possible that it shall penetrate in the gums and cause a very intense pain.

If the tooth is just displaced, usually in the case of a front tooth, we must put it back in place and visit a dentist. However, in the case that the tooth has fallen out, we must wash it thoroughly with water and put it back in place.