pain

Can Wisdom Teeth Cause Headaches and Neck Pain?

September 15th, 2016

Can Wisdom Teeth Cause Headaches and Neck Pain?As the last teeth to emerge into the mouth, wisdom teeth can be the source of a lot of problems. Because they typically don't develop until ages 17-24, they may not have enough room to grow in, causing painful impaction of the teeth. This means that these four wisdom teeth may only partially come through into the mouth, or in some cases, not at all.

Wisdom teeth are the source of many aches and pains, and removal is typically the best option to relieve symptoms of impaction. What may not be commonly known is their ability to affect other regions of the body, causing symptoms of headaches and neck pain. This article will strive to provide answers to those who are wondering about the full range of wisdom tooth pain, including lesser known symptoms like headaches and neck pain.

Is it True That Wisdom Teeth Can Cause Headaches and Neck Pain?

In short, absolutely. As wisdom teeth slowly grow into maturation, they can have some potentially significant—and painful—effects on the rest of your body. With decreased room to grow, wisdom teeth create natural tension. This slowly building tension can spread from your gums, into your jaw, and across other areas of your body.

How Do They Cause this Pain?

Headaches come as a result of tension and irregular pressure in your jaw. As wisdom teeth grow in, they may cause your other teeth to shift in order to make room. Sometimes this results in what dentists call a “gum pouch.” This is a small, painful pouch that results from an infection caused by a wisdom tooth trying to come through.

As a result, your jaw position and your bite may be forced to change in an attempt to avoid unnecessary pain. While adjusting your jaw position may save you from biting down on a swollen and painful gum pocket, you may be unknowingly causing further harm. Changing your bite pattern could shift your jaw joints into an unnatural position.

Those shifted jaw joints may become swollen and painful, and could get pushed against your ear muscles every time those joints are flexed. This is what causes a headache—direct and unnatural pressure against ear muscles due to a shifted jaw position and bite pattern.

Increased tension in your jaw can certainly spread to your neck, causing neck pain as well. That pressure can quickly spread from the back of your jaw to your lower neck, increasing overall pain, and perhaps inflaming headache symptoms, as well. Headaches and neck pain can be sure signs that a wisdom tooth has been infected, and needs removal.

What Are the Treatment Options for Impacted Wisdom Teeth?

Treatment options are split into two groups: preventative treatment, and permanent relief. The best way to prevent wisdom teeth from becoming infected is to practice routine and thorough oral hygiene. Surrounding decay also causes many painful symptoms caused by wisdom teeth, or food and bacteria getting trapped around the tooth. Proper and thorough oral hygiene can act as good preventative measures for incoming wisdom teeth.

Unfortunately, the placement of wisdom teeth can make proper hygiene tough. Because they rest so far back in the jaw, they can be hard to clean. Additionally, there is not much to do for preventing pain from wisdom teeth—it's painful, but a relatively natural growth process.

Once impacted, or infected, the absolute best treatment is to have the affected teeth removed. Unfortunately, painkillers are only a temporary solution to what could become a permanent—and dangerous—problem. Left untreated, an impacted wisdom tooth could spread infections into the jaw muscles, which could travel into the brain. Keeping your body as healthy as possible can sometimes mean keeping your mouth as healthy as possible, too.

Not only will this alleviate painful symptoms, but removing wisdom teeth is the best way to prevent your body from developing an abnormal bite pattern. This will relieve tension headaches and neck pain, as well.

Conclusion

While wisdom teeth can indeed carry a host of painful symptoms and issues, the good news is that wisdom teeth pain is entirely treatable. You may not be able to prevent your wisdom teeth from coming in, but you can certainly avoid suffering unnecessary pain through wisdom teeth removal.

If you are suffering from headaches and neck pain, visit Water Tower Dental Care in Chicago today! We can help you determine if your wisdom teeth could be the cause.

Does Laser Gum Removal Treatment Hurt?

December 3rd, 2015

Does Laser Gum Removal Treatment Hurt?After you’ve worked so hard to make your teeth shine, the last thing you want is for your gums to cover them up. A gummy smile can make your teeth look stubby and short. But underneath those gums is a gorgeous set of pearly whites. Laser gum removal, also called laser gum recontouring, can reveal your complete smile. And best of all, it’s virtually painless, so you don’t have to worry about the laser gum removal treatment hurting.
Let’s take a deeper look at how exactly laser gum treatment can help your smile without hurting it.

How Does Laser Gum Treatment Work?

Back in the day, dentists used to use a scalpel to remove excess gum over the teeth. Needless to say, this was pretty painful and caused a fair amount of bleeding. Thankfully, laser technology has allowed cosmetic dentists to gently cut away and perfectly shape excess gums in a virtually painless treatment!
How does it do this? During the laser gum recontouring procedure, your dentist will numb your mouth with local anesthesic. This way, you won’t feel any discomfort. From there, your dentist will use the heat of a diode laser to remove excess gum tissue and shape a more uniform and smooth gum line that enhances the beauty of your smile. Lasers are incredibly precise and accurate, so the laser won’t target anything but the problem areas.
The treatment can be performed and completed in just one short visit to the dentists office.

Before and After Laser Gum Recontouring at Water Tower Dental Care in Chicago

What Are Laser Gum Recontouring Results Like?

After your laser gum recontouring treatment, your gums will be pulled back to a normal length and shaped to best compliment your teeth. Your smile should look better than ever! Take a look at our laser gum recontouring before and after pictures to see what Water Tower Dental Care’s results look like.

What’s Recovery Like?

Unlike scalpels, lasers cauterize, or burn, while they remove your excess gums. Though this might sound scary, it’s actually really good for your recovery! Cauterization means less bleeding and a massively reduced risk of infection.
Your gums may feel swollen or a little sore up to a week after your treatment. But this discomfort shouldn’t be too bad or interfere with your normal routine. Your dentist will give you a low-strength pain reliever to minimize discomfort. You’ll still be able to eat, work, drink and speak normally, but you’ll want to stick to eating soft food a few days after surgery.
Don’t wait to get the smile of your dreams. Laser gum removal can painlessly shape your gums to provide you with your most beautiful smile. If you’re in Chicago, look no further than Chicago’s #1 cosmetic dentistry for your laser treatment. Contact Water Tower Dental Care to set up an appointment with us today!

5 Reasons Why Your Bottom Teeth May Hurt

September 24th, 2015

5 Reasons Why Your Bottom Teeth May HurtConstant tooth pain is irritating, and can be downright debilitating if it hurts enough. If you experience regular bottom teeth pain, the first thing you should do is visit your dentist so that whatever is wrong doesn’t get worse. But it doesn’t hurt to learn what might be causing your bottom teeth to hurt in the meantime. Here are 5 reasons why your bottom teeth may hurt.

You’ve Got A Cavity

Cavity Tooth Pain Symptoms: Typically, pain caused by cavities can be felt sharply, consistently and suddenly in one or more teeth when you bite down. Cavities can also cause sensitivity.
If you haven’t been getting rid of all of the plaque on and around your bottom teeth by brushing, flossing and using mouthwash, you may have cavity. Cavities can also be caused by gum recession. Cavities are holes in your teeth created by acids, which love eating away at your enamel. Thankfully, fixing a cavity is quick and easy. All your dentist has to do is fill it in with dental filling material.

Your Root Might Be Infected

Infected Root Tooth Pain Symptoms: If you experience a severe and constant bottom toothache that causes throbbing or shooting pain, you may have an abscessed tooth, or root infection. Your teeth may also feel sensitive to extreme temperatures and when biting down, and your gums and glands may be swollen.
Severe tooth decay is usually the reason why an infection develops at the root of your tooth. When acids have been allowed to dissolve your enamel for a while, bacteria infects the center of your tooth (the pulp) between your gum and your tooth. If you don’t see a dentist to cure your infection, it can spread to the bones that support your bottom teeth. A root canal can be performed to rid your teeth of the infection.

You’re Clenching and/or Grinding Your Teeth

Clenching/Grinding Tooth Pain Symptoms: If you bottom teeth pain is less severe, and more of a constant throbbing or achy pain, you may grind or clench your teeth too much.
Many people clench their teeth when they are concentrating or working out at the gym. You may also grind your teeth while you’re sound asleep. When you grind or clench your teeth often, you wear down your enamel, which exposes the tubes that lead to your nerves. This can lead to sensitivity and tooth pain. If you think you clench or grind your teeth, speak to your dentist about wearing a mouth guard.

You Fractured Your Tooth

Fractured Tooth Pain Symptoms: If you experience irregular pain in a bottom tooth when you’re chewing or when your tooth is exposed to extreme temperatures, you may have a fractured tooth.
The center of your tooth contains soft tissue, called the pulp, where your nerves are located. Your enamel and dentin, which is the hard layer underneath your enamel, protect your nerves. The closer your pulp is to being exposed, the more you irritate your nerves, which can cause pain and sensitivity. There are several different dental procedures that treat cracked teeth, depending on the severity, from crowns to root canals.

You Have Other Serious Health Issues

Bottom teeth pain isn’t always a sign that you have dental issues. Teeth pain can also be caused by a variety of other serious health issues that you might not even think of. These include heart attacks, sinus infections, cluster headaches, viral infections, diabetes, nerve-related disease, alcohol or drug abuse, and more.
The only way to truly find out what is causing your bottom teeth to hurt is to speak to your dentist. They’ll be able to get to the root of your teeth pain and provide you with solutions to make you pain-free again.

Remedies for a Burnt Mouth or Tongue

May 1st, 2014

remedies for burnt mouth tongueA burnt mouth: we’ve all done it before, and we all know how awful it feels. From a slice a pizza that just came from the oven, to a steaming cup of coffee, we’ve all experienced the awful pain. The sensitivity that your mouth must endure for the next day is often much more annoying than the original burn. There are a few remedies that can help sooth the pain, and make it go away a little faster. Here our tips.

 First, keep your cool:

If you can, immediately after burning your tongue or mouth, you should find something cool to apply to it. Whether a glass of ice water, an ice cube, Popsicle or ice cream, it all can help. Make sure the cold is left on the burnt area for at least a minute to help dissipate the heat and save your mouth or tongue cells from becoming too damaged.
Yogurt is a great cool food that can help revitalize the mouth and even help kill bad bacteria that might make the damage worse. If you have some available, use that to cool your mouth.

 Help It Heal

Next, you’re going to want to keep good care of your mouth to keep it from becoming infected or just having the burn last longer than it needs to. Consider using an anesthetic ointment or a mouthwash that will help maintain the bacteria levels in your mouth. This can also help numb the pain from the burn, just make sure not to use too much.
Furthermore, you’ll want to avoid goods that can upset your mouth. These include any kind of food that is high in acidity: lemons, vinegar, citrus, tomatoes, fruit juices, and so forth. These kinds of foods can make the burnt area throb with pain. As well, try to avoid foods that can be rough to bite or chew, think potato chips, popcorn, baguettes. The crispy crunch of these foods will be like sandpaper to a sensitive area of the mouth.

 Continue the Soothe

It may still take a day for a burn on the tongue or mouth to heal, so to help avoid more pain than you need, consider grabbing a few cough drops. Look for ones with menthol or benzocaine as an ingredient. These cough drops will have a cooling affect on your mouth and will help soothe the burnt area. A few of these throughout the day and you’ll barely notice the pain.

 Time is the Best Medicine

Of course, when it comes to a burnt tongue or mouth, time is going to be the best fix. Most burns take about a day to two days to heal. The mouth and especially the tongue, are very well maintaining areas of the body. Think of how many times you’ve bit your tongue, or accidentally burnt it.
However strong it may be, it can become much stronger when you apply proper oral hygiene techniques everyday. Brushing, flossing, and mouthwash help keep out harmful bacteria and plaque that can cause harm to your mouth. With a proper cleaning, good bacterias and cells can help maintain a strong and healthy mouth.
If you have any more questions about an injured tongue or mouth, contact Water Tower Dental today, we’d be happy to help.