Why does a tooth hurt under a filling?
A properly performed dental operation should relieve the patient from pain for a long time. But in some cases, the filled tooth continues to hurt after the effect of painkillers wears off, or pain may occur suddenly a day, a week, or a month after treatment. Why does a tooth hurt under the filling and how to eliminate this discomfort?
A tooth hurts under the filling immediately after the operation
Immediately after dental procedures, “reactive pains” may occur. Each manipulation of the dentist in the root canal is a kind of trauma. The doctor removes tooth fragments, cleans carious cavities, removes pulp, or injects a drug. In the treatment of pulpitis and periodontitis, filling a tooth does not relieve pain at all, the discomfort disappears long after filling. Therefore, it should be remembered that discomfort may not go away immediately, but after a few hours or days, during which the tooth hurts under the filling. Discomfort can occur with tapping, closing teeth, or even without external stimulus. But over time, it passes. With a low pain threshold, you can reduce discomfort, for which the gums are lubricated with iodine tincture or simply take general pain relievers.
There are often situations when a tooth hurts under a temporary filling. And this is not surprising, because the task of a temporary composite is not to create a durable coating, but only to temporarily isolate the tooth cavity from food ingestion, protecting it from inflammation. Such a coating is applied for pulpitis, periodontitis, deep caries. In this case, the feeling that a tooth hurts under a temporary filling is considered normal, since the action of the injected drug causes discomfort. But it can also be the result of an allergic reaction, non-compliance with hygiene standards, or a banal loss of a seal. As a rule, one or several days after the installation of the temporary composite, the next visit to the dentist is scheduled, as a result of which the temporary coverage is changed to a permanent one. Then the discomfort goes away.
Dentist mistake, allergies or desire to save money
One of the most common reasons why a tooth hurts under a filling is the overestimation of the filling over the bite. Usually the dentist will carefully grind the filling material by giving the patient a copy paper to chew. You should not neglect such a procedure and ignore the fact that the tooth hurts under the filling, since even an extra millimeter will subsequently cause discomfort and feel like a foreign body. In addition, with an inflated filling, the opposing jaws press on it more than on the other teeth of the row, as a result of which a chronic injury occurs, which can subsequently lead to traumatic pulpitis and periodontitis. There is also a risk of the filling and the wall of the tooth chipping, or the distortion and displacement of the lower jaw, which, in turn, can lead to diseases of the temporomandibular joints. If you feel uncomfortable,ask your dentist for corrections. The whole procedure will take no more than 10 minutes.
Another reason why a tooth hurts under a filling for a long time after a dental procedure is an allergic reaction to the metal contained in the filling material. In this case, the dentist removes the old filling and puts a new one.
Sometimes the reason that a tooth hurts under a filling is an elementary desire to save on composites. Subsequently, the tooth reacts to hot and cold, and this happens as a result of the use of inexpensive and outdated materials that can sag or penetrate the periodontium. Modern light-hardening fillings do not have such problems, they practically do not shrink, and plaque forms on them much more slowly.
Tooth hurts under the old filling as a result of inflammation
No doctor can guarantee that the installed filling will solve the problem of toothache once and for all. There are often situations when a tooth hurts under an old filling, and the reason is infectious. This, in turn, can occur with the development of the following diseases:
- Recurrent caries;
- Pulpitis;
- Periodontitis;
- Tooth cyst.
With insufficient cleaning of the cavity, a tooth often hurts, under the filling - this indicates the development of repeated caries. An urgent need to consult a dentist, since advanced caries can cause tooth extraction.
Sometimes, immediately after the treatment of caries, pulpitis develops, while the tooth under the filling typically hurts. The reason may be insufficient cleaning of carious tissues, thermal burns of the pulp, aseptic inflammation as a result of overdrying of the bottom of the tooth cavity. But most often pulpitis occurs as a complication of deep caries, when the inflammatory process affects the nerve endings. In acute pulpitis, the tooth hurts under the filling with attacks, most of all - at night, while discomfort occurs without visible stimuli or as a reaction to cold and hot. In chronic pulpitis, aching pain with periodic exacerbations.
Periodontitis often causes a toothache under an old filling. The periodontium is the "ligament" of the tooth that connects it to the bone. When the infectious process spreads to deep tissues, the integrity of the periodontium is violated, causing the feeling of a "grown tooth", pain arises even with a light touch to it, gives it to the ear, temple, back of the head. With chronic periodontitis, you may not even feel that the tooth hurts under the filling. But on the other hand, it is unpleasant to bite with the damaged side of the jaw and there is a feeling that the tooth is bursting. An x-ray is required to clarify the diagnosis.
A tooth cyst can develop for months or years, and painlessly. But this process is not so harmless, since it accompanies the destruction of the jaw bone tissue. A cyst is a pathological cavity with dense walls with liquid or mushy contents. In the later stages, it becomes the cause of general weakness, headaches, fever, chronic sinusitis, periostitis. In this case, a diseased tooth is almost indistinguishable from a healthy one until an exacerbation occurs. With a cyst, a tooth hurts under the filling, discomfort occurs when biting and remains at rest, the temperature rises. Modern methods of surgical and therapeutic treatment allow you to save the tooth, but this cannot be done if the periodontal pocket is the cause of the infection,a crack in the root or tooth body was formed, as well as with significant destruction of dental tissues, obstruction of root canals and multiple root perforations.
If a tooth hurts under the filling, then in almost all cases the situation requires a second visit to the dentist. After all, the consequence can be both mechanical destruction of the tooth and a chronic infectious process, leading to tooth loss and general ailments.
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