Why do teeth hurt from cold and hot? How to cure this?

Why do teeth hurt from cold and hot?

The most obvious causes of pain when eating cold and hot foods are:

• Regular exposure of enamel to acids
  . Remember, do you eat too many lemons and oranges, do you like sweet carbonated drinks and especially Coca-Cola?
• Microscopic enamel injuries
  . Tiny cracks are not uncommon among those who like to chew nuts, seeds, caramels, and other hard foods. For the same reason, the habit of biting your nails and clenching your teeth is also dangerous for your teeth.
• Abuse of whitening pastes
  . They can be used in short courses. It’s better to seek help from professionals - home whitening does not provide a long-lasting effect, but it seriously damages the enamel.
• Using a brush that is too hard
  . Such a personal hygiene instrument provokes atrophy of the soft tissues of the gums and ultimately leads to exposure of the neck of the tooth.
• Development of caries
  . Hyperesthesia in this case signals the development of erosion and the appearance of wedge-shaped defects.
• Exposure of the neck of the tooth
  . There is no enamel at the base of the tooth, so patients with this problem react particularly acutely to cold and hot foods, and even to a flow of cold air when inhaled.

Body problems that, at first glance, are in no way related to dentistry can also deprive you of the pleasure of eating ice cream. These include:

• Endocrine disorders
  . Problems with hormones change the acid-base balance in the mouth, which in turn affects the condition of the enamel.
• Acute respiratory diseases
  . Bacteria and viruses during acute respiratory viral infections, acute respiratory infections and influenza can easily provoke hyperesthesia. One thing is good: with recovery, excessive tooth sensitivity also goes away completely.
• Bacterial gastritis
  . Increased acidity causes heartburn, which in turn increases acidity in the mouth. A too acidic environment inevitably leads to the destruction of enamel and the development of hyperesthesia.
• Stress
  . When we worry about problems in the family or at work, we unconsciously trigger a complex mechanism, one of the manifestations of which is increased nervous excitability. They respond with excessive sensitivity to global stress and nerve roots in the tooth.
• Lack of magnesium, calcium or phosphorus
  . Without getting enough of these minerals, tooth enamel begins to break down, nerves become exposed, and sensitivity to the temperature of food and drinks increases.
• Toxicosis during pregnancy
  . The first trimester is a difficult period during which a woman often develops stomatitis and periodontal disease, and all dental problems, including hyperesthesia, worsen.

Some medications, such as hormonal contraceptives, can also cause problems. As well as constant inhalation of chemicals, which is typical for workers in the food and chemical industries. Situations in which teeth react only to hot or only to cold deserve special attention.

A painful reaction only to hot foods is most often a sign of an exposed nerve. By the time pain appears, the culprit tooth is already practically dead due to lack of tissue nutrition. But decomposition inside the tooth is in full swing with the simultaneous release of methane gas. When eating hot food, methane expands and puts pressure not only on the inflamed nerve, but also on the main one, passing through the entire dentition. Thus, due to the disease of one tooth, hyperesthesia of the entire jaw can develop.

The cause of tooth sensitivity to cold foods, drinks and even air often lies in inflammation of the soft tissues of the tooth - pulpitis. And also in the exposure of the neck: in those areas that react to cold, you can usually easily see the peeling of the gums from the neck of the tooth.

Cold air

Constant temperature changes - from low to high and back - provoke the appearance of cracks in tooth enamel. In the cold, the enamel is destroyed even faster, taking into account that there are already cracks.

If you drink hot tea in the cold, or coffee with ice cream at home, or often run out of a warm office outside for a “smoke break,” most likely there are already cracks. Be sure to contact your dentist so that he can look and evaluate the condition of your tooth enamel. Otherwise, the cracks will expand and deepen, leading to tooth loss.

And if you have sensitive teeth and gums, then when talking in the cold, you may feel the so-called “ache in the teeth,” as if your entire jaw hurts. In this case, special toothpastes and gels for sensitive teeth can help, but only after a doctor’s prescription.

The main thing is not to combine hot and cold, and warm yourself before going outside: wear woolen socks, scarves, deep hoods.

Pain after dental treatment

Sometimes the start for the development of hyperesthesia is a visit to the dentist. The doctors themselves admit: the insufficient level of professionalism is entirely to blame for the development of this situation. Teeth may hurt after:

• hygienic cleaning and polishing;
• whitening procedures;
• installation of a photopolymer filling;
• tooth extension, or rather, due to etching of tissues with acid-containing gels.

In the vast majority of cases, an experienced dentist would be able to avoid the development of hyperesthesia. For example, a whitening service in modern clinics necessarily includes a preventive procedure for protecting the enamel. And the development of tooth sensitivity after filling indicates a gross mistake by the doctor. Possibly during treatment:

• not all inflamed tissue was removed by the dentist;
• a burn of the pulp occurred, and as a result, inflammation developed;
• an air bubble remains in the treated cavity;
• the doctor damaged the integrity of the seal;
• individual intolerance to the composite material made itself felt.

Unfortunately, the pain will not subside over time, but will only intensify. Therefore, if the sensitivity of tooth enamel remains unchanged for 7-10 days, it is better to schedule an examination with the dentist again. If the pain increases, you cannot postpone the visit: you need to see a doctor as soon as possible.

Why does a tooth without a nerve hurt from cold and hot?

It is generally accepted that after the nerve is removed, the tooth will no longer be able to hurt. In fact, the reaction of a dead tooth to temperature is rather normal, and there is no need to worry. Over time, the pain will subside on its own, because most often the cause lies in microtraumas to the enamel of neighboring teeth that were received during treatment.

If after a few days the reaction to hot or cold does not decrease, but intensifies, you should not hesitate! It is likely that the dentist did not completely remove the nerve, and the inflammatory process was not stopped. Such mistakes are extremely rarely made by dentists with extensive experience, but among beginners it is not at all uncommon.

There is no point in blaming the aesculapians: what we are accustomed to calling a nerve is, in fact, a branched system of tiny hairs, spreading in all directions of the tooth. It is sometimes impossible to see all the “tentacles” even on an x-ray. And only with experience comes an intuitive feeling of how the “labyrinth” of nerves is located in a particular patient.

In the practice of Western dentistry, a separate specialty has long been distinguished: an endodontist, a specialist in root canal treatment. In Russia, only large, well-equipped clinics can afford specialists of such a narrow profile.

How exactly does pain occur?

To understand the mechanism of pain when eating cold or hot food, it is enough to remember the structure of the tooth. We call the topmost, visible layer enamel. This is the most durable tissue of the human body, which reliably protects the more sensitive tooth tissues from any irritants, including thermal ones.

But if you neglect your health or due to chronic diseases, the enamel becomes thinner, exposing dentin. It, in turn, is permeated through and through with hollow tubules, which begin at the pulp itself. And without a barrier in the form of durable enamel, irritants: cold air, cold and hot drinks easily pass through the tubules of the dentin and begin to directly affect the nerve endings. The patient experiences a sharp attack of pain.

Pain and cold. How to deal with tooth sensitivity in winter.

Anastasia Ermakovich

Dentist therapist at the Ekostom dental clinic

Hyperesthesia is the name given in medical practice to the manifestation of increased tooth sensitivity. And, although this in no way affects their appearance, this problem causes significant discomfort, causing severe pain. It can appear, for example, during brushing, when the brush only touches the teeth, when eating sweet, sour foods, as well as cold and hot drinks, food. However, this does not mean that the problem can be solved only by excluding cold, hot or sweet foods from the diet. Even inhaling cold air can cause instant pain, and in such a situation it is hardly worth talking about good health and mood.

If in the summer the sensitivity of intact teeth is most often associated with eating a large amount of sour fruits, then in winter the cause may be a decrease in immunity.

In addition, changes in climate, pressure, temperature in the case of flights, as well as changes in the usual nature of nutrition affect. New Year's holidays are another blow to the immune system and a provocation of all kinds of ailments. It is in winter that the difference in air temperature indoors and outdoors is catastrophically large.

And, if you go out into the cold, you understand that there will be no conversations, all communication is at home, in the warmth, because your teeth “ache”, such a situation cannot be tolerated. You need to urgently contact a dentist who will select the optimal treatment and means that can return you to sociability and your usual way of life.

Many patients have a question: why do teeth become so sensitive? A specialist will need to figure it out before he can say for sure what the cause of this painful phenomenon is and how to deal with it. Perhaps it is caries, pulpitis, periodontitis, gum disease. God knows, there are many reasons for tooth pain. Therefore, the specialist is important, not the remedy.

Damage to the enamel can cause sensitivity. Excessive indulgence in sweets, carbonated drinks, etc. can cause this. In addition, sensitivity occurs due to changes in the dentinal tubules. Inside these tubules are the nerve fibers of the pulp. When a thermal, mechanical or chemical effect occurs, for example, when eating cold or hot food, touching a toothbrush, etc., the fluid in the dentinal tubule is displaced.

This process, in turn, irritates the nerve endings, which lead to pain impulses in the pulp.

It should be noted that hyperesthesia can only manifest itself in living teeth. This should inspire healthy optimism; a living tooth is much better - it can be cured, but if a pulpless tooth (a tooth in which the nerve was previously removed) hurts, it is a candidate for removal.

If you have any symptoms of tooth sensitivity, you should not delay your visit to the dentist in order to make a timely diagnosis and undergo the course of treatment necessary in such cases. Dental office professionals have the necessary knowledge and equipment to effectively resolve the problem. If necessary, work will be done to close the dentinal tubules. For these purposes, special restorative agents are used. Remineralization of tooth enamel can be carried out using special means.

To reduce tooth sensitivity, your dentist may recommend a toothpaste such as Sensodyne, which will be an excellent support remedy at home. However, we must not forget that the effectiveness of treatment will be high only when the entire range of professional treatment is carried out and the main “culprits” of tooth sensitivity are eliminated.

Forms and degrees of hyperesthesia

Most often, hyperesthesia is of a generalized nature, when the entire dentition reacts equally to cold and hot. This form of the disease is associated with a general deterioration in health or with a passion for whitening procedures. But after treatment at the dentist or injury, a localized form of the disease may occur. It captures only one tooth, less often – several.

Hyperesthesia develops gradually:

1st degree

. Often ignored by patients who are in no hurry to pay attention to the reaction of the tooth when it comes into contact with hot and cold. At this stage, brushing your teeth and eating foods with a bright taste does not yet cause discomfort.

II degree

. The irritants in the form of extreme temperatures are accompanied by tastes: sweet, salty, spicy. And the unpleasant, but still painless reaction is replaced by pain when eating.

III degree

. Now, it seems that the teeth react with unbearable pain to literally everything: hot and cold, spicy and sweet, sour and salty. And just the thought of using a toothbrush plunges the patient into horror: touching the teeth hurts even with a finger.

When erosive processes are slowed down, for example, due to the use of high-quality toothpaste or when adjusting the diet, tooth sensitivity can significantly decrease. But as soon as the underlying disease worsens or medications are resumed, hyperesthesia reasserts itself.

Causes

Doctors call hypersensitivity of enamel hyperesthesia. This condition is characterized by the appearance of acute pain when the coronal part is exposed to temperature stimuli. The problem may concern a specific area of ​​the oral cavity or the entire dentition.

These are the most common reasons why teeth react to cold and hot:

• advanced caries, pulpitis;
• errors made during dental treatment;
• whitening;
• influence of external factors;
• internal disorders in the body.

Let's look at each provoking factor in more detail.

Caries, pulpitis

As the carious cavity forms, the enamel becomes thinner and a large “hollow” is formed. It can reach deep layers. The tissues are exposed, which gradually leads to damage to the dentin and inflammation of the pulp. It is important not to hesitate in such a situation, since progressive pulpitis can make a person toothless.

An interesting fact is that sometimes a unit becomes overly sensitive when a very small and shallow carious spot forms on its surface. This is due to the thinning of the enamel in the problem area. The resulting discomfort can be eliminated very simply by performing remineralization or fluoridation in the dentist’s office.

Poorly performed dental treatment

If during treatment for pulpitis the doctor does not clean the dentinal tubules well or does not completely remove the nerve endings, very soon the patient will experience increased sensitivity. Another reason related to medical practice is loose placement of filling material into a carious cavity.

You should not skimp on choosing a dental clinic and the doctor’s qualifications. Always make an appointment only with experienced and competent specialists with an impeccable reputation, then after treatment you will not suffer from pain and be nervous about the need for refilling.

Whitening

Very often, in pursuit of a perfect smile, people end up with overly sensitive teeth. Bleaching itself is not very harmful if:

• it is carried out in compliance with all rules and regulations;
• the patient was properly prepared;
• The procedure is not repeated too often.

In the first days after whitening procedures, an abnormal reaction to hot or cold is normal. At this time, you just need to follow a gentle diet and try not to irritate the tissues of the oral cavity.

If the problem does not go away after a week, you should take a closer look at your health. It is important to strengthen the enamel and no longer expose it to aggressive lightening agents.

External factors

As practice shows, most often people themselves are to blame for the fact that their teeth began to react too actively to the influence of high and low temperatures. Frequent consumption of sweet carbonated drinks, a love of sour and spicy foods, the habit of gnawing on foreign objects - all this has an extremely negative impact on the condition of the enamel. Chewing hard nuts, all kinds of crackers, and seeds also causes damage to dental tissue.

Among other unfavorable factors:

• unresolved malocclusions, in which there is an uneven distribution of the chewing load;
• tendency to wear off enamel;
• bruxism (involuntary grinding of teeth at night).

Internal factors

The first symptoms of hyperesthesia make themselves felt during standard teeth brushing. After completing the hygiene procedures, the discomfort soon disappears. These nerve endings indicate that the enamel is not in the best condition. Also, an unusual reaction to hot and cold can be associated with injuries.

Among the internal causes of violations in medical practice, the following are most common:

• Gastritis. With increased acidity, the separated acid harms the enamel and contributes to its thinning.
• Endocrine disorders, including diabetes. In these conditions, a deficiency of microelements in the structures of the oral cavity is often diagnosed. Teeth suffer due to a lack of calcium and phosphorus, which negatively affects their condition.
• The special composition of saliva. This anomaly is rare, but still occurs.

What can you do to relieve pain?

If the pain is severe and it is impossible to get to the dentist in the next few days, hyperesthesia can be pacified for a short time. The simplest, but, alas, not always effective way is to rinse your mouth with a soda solution: 1 teaspoon of soda per glass of warm water.

Painkillers based on ketoprofen: “Ketonal”, “Flexen” and ibuprofen: “Nurofen”, “MIG” relieve symptoms of hyperesthesia well. They act quickly and allow you to completely forget about pain for 5-6 hours.

Local anesthetics in the form of gels give an even stronger effect: “Cholisal”, “Kamistad”, “Dentinox”. These drugs contain lidocaine, so they begin to act instantly. The effect, however, does not last long - for 2-3 hours, after which you can apply another drop of the product to the surface of the teeth.

Traditional medicine gives its own recipe for pain relief: rinsing the mouth with warm water with the addition of 3-4 drops of clove oil or tea tree oil.

Is it possible to cure sensitivity on your own?

If the process is not too advanced, you can cope with hyperesthesia at home. First, you should review your diet and remove from it all those foods that cause pain: sour fruits and juices, hot drinks and dishes, iced cocktails and soda, sweets and ice cream. This alone can soothe aching teeth for a long time.

To speed up the process, you can purchase special gels and ointments, for example, Fluokal, GS Tooth Mousse, President. Their task is to create a thin film on the surface of the tooth that will protect the enamel from destruction by acids and close the exposed dentin tubules. The dental film Diplen Denta F also showed good results. It is fixed on the teeth for 7-8 hours so that the film has time to saturate the enamel with fluoride.

An excellent folk remedy for tooth sensitivity is tea tree oil. To treat hyperesthesia, 3 drops of it should be diluted in a glass of warm water and rinsed 1-2 times a day. After such rinses, it is important not to eat for 1.5-2 hours.

Self-treatment of tooth sensitivity can be quite effective. But only if the cause of the problem is thinning of the enamel. If the measures taken do not produce any results over the course of several days, and the pain intensifies, you should immediately consult a doctor.

Choosing toothpaste

For increased tooth sensitivity, desensitizing pastes containing a lot of fluorine, potassium and calcium are recommended. In addition, they contain components that fill microcracks in the enamel and restore its structure. Sometimes the composition contains a long-acting anesthetic. Such pastes can simply be spread on the teeth to get a quick pain-relieving effect.

The best on the Russian market are SILCA Complete Sensitive and LACALUT Extra Sensitive, Sensodyne F and Blendamed Pro-Expert. The popularity of these products has played a cruel joke on them - there are a huge number of fakes on store shelves. Therefore, you need to buy medicinal paste only at the pharmacy.

Despite the fact that the use of desensitizing pastes is no different from the use of conventional ones, the former are classified as medicinal. Therefore, you cannot use them constantly, without a break: a course of 4-5 weeks is enough, after which you need to return to regular hygienic toothpaste.

In order for the components of the medicinal paste to bring maximum benefit, you need to brush your teeth with special care, and for at least 3-5 minutes 2 times a day. Brushes for hyperesthesia should be selected with medium hardness. So that they can successfully cope with the removal of food debris, but cannot injure the gums.

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Treatment in the clinic

Advanced cases of hyperesthesia require the intervention of a dental therapist. Its main task is to identify the cause of increased sensitivity. And based on this, solve the problem:

• if sensitivity occurs as a result of caries , the affected tooth is filled;
• in case of severe receding gums , the soft tissues are surgically raised to the proper level;
• if the gums are inflamed , the patient will be offered medication;
• In case of severe tooth wear, an orthodontist consultation is indicated.

The initial stage of hyperesthesia is perfectly treatable with fluoridation. It consists of applying calcium and fluoride salts to damaged teeth. Usually, after 5-7 sessions the patient feels much better, and after 10-15 procedures the hyperesthesia completely subsides.

Unfortunately, if you do not adhere to a gentle diet and do not follow the dentist’s recommendations, enamel sensitivity may return after six months to a year. And the course of treatment will have to be repeated.

Iontophoresis helps enhance the effect of fluoridation. This is a physiotherapeutic method, which consists of introducing therapeutic solutions into tooth tissue using numerous but small discharges of galvanic current.

What complications may arise?

The main thing to remember is that tooth sensitivity does not go away on its own. If you do not fight it, the disease will progress quickly. Unpleasant sensations will soon be replaced by outbreaks of pain when the enamel is irritated by hot and cold drinks. Then you will not be able to eat sweet and sour, salty and spicy. And at the last stage, short-term pain transforms into constant pain, and its intensity will be such that just touching the tooth will seem unbearable.

At the last stage of the disease, fluoridation will no longer help. It will be lucky if the dentist agrees to cover the patient’s own enamel with composite materials. But in most cases, the doctor will insist on the removal of diseased teeth and subsequent prosthetics.

How does hyperesthesia develop?

Almost never does a tooth begin to react acutely to cold and hot overnight. Unpleasant symptoms are preceded by alarm bells. So, usually pathology goes through the following stages:

• the unit periodically whines in response to temperature changes;
• enamel becomes overly sensitive to salty, spicy and sour foods;
• hyperesthesia recurs more often and persists longer.

It gets to the point where almost any external irritant begins to cause pain symptoms. Even the air inhaled through the mouth makes a person suffer. In advanced cases, the symptoms of hyperesthesia never go away, which is why the patient’s quality of life is significantly reduced.

Prevention of tooth sensitivity

The best prevention of hyperesthesia is daily care of tooth enamel:

• Thorough brushing of teeth 2 times a day.
• Periodic use of preventive pastes and complete avoidance of bleaching products containing abrasives.
• Mandatory presence in the diet of foods containing calcium and phosphorus.
• Minimum consumption of sweets.
• The habit of drinking juices and carbonated drinks through a straw.
• Avoiding foods that are too hot or too cold.

And most importantly: if the tooth’s reaction to an irritant occurs abruptly, and the painful sensations do not go away within 3-4 days, contact an experienced dentist. Don't wait for the problem to become rampant.

Author: Elena Grunina Dentist-therapist, endodontist. Work experience more than 9 years.

The information is for reference only. Before treatment, consultation with a doctor is necessary.

Prevention

Teeth hurt from temperature changes (cold and hot), but this does not mean that in order to prevent the problem, any external influence should be limited as much as possible. The modern market offers many pastes, gels, ready-made rinses and other compositions that can prevent the appearance of an unpleasant symptom or suppress it at the earliest stages. Since the composition of all products is different, doctors advise changing them periodically. In this case, it is better to exclude special bleaching agents altogether.

There are also general rules, if followed, you can protect yourself from the occurrence of hypersensitivity:

• High-quality oral hygiene. Cleaning is carried out at least 2 times a day, morning and evening. After eating, you should rinse your mouth and use floss.
• Nutrition is adjusted, it must be balanced. It is important that the foods you eat contain sufficient amounts of minerals, vitamins and other valuable components. It is recommended to limit the consumption of sweets, hard nuts and seeds, and soda as much as possible.
• Consult your doctor about possible intake of vitamin-mineral complexes.
• You should visit the dentist 2 times a year. Even if nothing bothers a person, the doctor is able to diagnose the disease at its very beginning.

What should you do if your tooth feels cold and hot, or is swollen by the breath of a chilly autumn wind or a sip of freshly prepared tea? The first thing you should do is contact a dental clinic. Only a physician will be able to carefully examine the oral cavity and identify hidden pathological processes that lead to the occurrence of increased sensitivity. Specialists will help you understand the causes of the disease and develop effective therapeutic tactics. Call or leave requests on our website.