Top 10 Reasons Why Your Tooth Hurts – Sekhon Dental Agoura Hills

You wake up in the morning, and your tooth hurts. You brush your teeth, but it doesn’t go away. You’ve been brushing regularly, so what could be causing that pain? At Sekhon Dental Agoura Hills, we offer emergency dental care. The most common reasons people experience tooth pain are:

1. Tooth decay and cavities. If you don’t regularly brush your teeth, the sugar from sugary foods will stick to your teeth and lead to bacteria that can cause a cavity or a hole in the outer layer of enamel. The most common symptom of this problem is when it hurts when you eat, drink, or brush your teeth.
2. Gum disease. Periodontal diseases are caused by plaque, and they can lead to infection of the gums, which eventually harms the tooth’s exposed root structure. The most common symptoms for this problem are soreness in the gum tissue around that tooth and bad breath, red or swollen gums.
3. A problem with the tooth itself. Sometimes there can be an injury to a tooth that leads to persistent pain, and if you have had any trauma in your mouth, then it is possible for teeth near the injured area could become damaged as well. The most common symptoms for this problem are when the tooth hurts every day, a tooth feels loose, or there is a pain in the jaw.
4. A problem with your bite. If you have problems when chewing food and if this leads to additional stress on that tooth, then it can lead to discomfort at best and pain for worse. The most common symptoms of an issue with your bite are sensitive teeth after eating something hard like an apple.
5. A tooth that has died. When a tooth no longer functions and doesn’t have any nerves in it, the pain can be caused by bacteria or tartar buildup on top of the root making it sensitive to touch, which could explain chronic swelling around that area as sensitivity when biting down on something hard. The most common symptoms of a tooth dying are when the pain worsens at night; there’s discoloration on the tooth and sensitivity to hot or cold.
6. An abscess in your jaw bone. Sometimes this can be caused by an infection from untreated cavities and gum disease that has become too serious for antibiotics to work, resulting in a toothache. The most common symptoms are when the pain worsens at night or when you chew on that side of your mouth, swelling under an eye, and morning stiffness around that jaw bone.
7. Teeth grinding. This can be caused by stress, which leads to teeth slipping down from their natural position while chewing, leading to issues like cracked enamel or even a broken tooth. The most common symptoms are when you hear your teeth grinding, the pain is worse at night, and there can be sensitivity to hot or cold in those areas on either side of your jaw where it hurts.
8. A nerve problem from an injury elsewhere in the body. Sometimes nerves outside of the mouth can be damaged, and if there is an injury to your head, neck, or spine, then this could lead to tooth pain. The most common symptoms are when the pain in that tooth has been going on for a while with no signs of improvement, it’s continuous all day long, and you have numbness around that area where it hurts as well.
9. An infection of the root canal. If an abscess has spread and broken through the outer layer of tooth enamel, it could lead to a problem with the nerve, which will cause intense pain when chewing or drinking hot liquids. The most common symptoms are when you have swelling in your cheek around the area.
10. An infection. Many different types of infections can cause toothache, but the most common is an abscess that arises from untreated cavities or gum disease. The most common symptoms for this problem are when there’s swelling in your gums, and it hurts to chew on that side of your mouth.

Most people don’t know how to identify a toothache until the pain becomes unbearable. Even then, they may not know what caused it or what to do about it. If you’re experiencing a toothache, the most important thing to do is to see us. At Sekhon Dental Agoura Hills, we are committed to providing the highest quality dental care in a caring and comfortable environment. We know that you deserve only the best.