The worst thing about toothaches is not the level of pain, but the constancy of the pain. The continuous throbbing and aching sensation of a toothache can leave you praying for an end to the pain. Sometimes, it seems that those prayers are answered. After two or three days of continuous pain, you wake up one morning to find the pain is gone.
Along with the relief, you should also; however, be wary. Just because a tooth has stopped hurting, that doesn't mean that the issue that caused the pain in the first place has passed. It may simply have moved on to something much worse than a mere toothache.
Constant Pain Means the Nerve is Affected
Unlike pain that is caused by sensitivity, such as the sharp stabbing pains one feels when their teeth are exposed to the cold, nerve pain presents itself as a constant, throbbing sensation. Sharp pains suggest that a tooth has the beginnings of a cavity, or that the enamel is wearing thin and thus allowing temperature fluctuations to reach the nerve within the tooth. Sensitivity in a single tooth is an early sign that you should visit your dentist for a checkup.
Constant pain, however, generally means that the nerve within the central chamber of a tooth, has become irritated. This could be due to bacteria having gained access via a break or a cavity, or because of recent trauma such as a collision suffered while playing sport. Either way, once the nerve of a tooth is infected, this infection causes pain signals to be transmitted to the brain in a continuous loop.
If these pain signals suddenly stop one day, while you may be relieved, the worse is yet to come--unless you take action.
Once a Nerve Dies, the Pain Stops
An end to the pain usually means that the nerve inside a tooth has died. Is this a bad thing? Yes, because even though the pain is gone and your tooth is intact, your tooth now contains a rich source of dead biological material. If the nerve was irritated by bacteria in the first place, due to a cavity or crack, that bacteria will now begin to feast on the dead nerve.
As the bacterial organisms eat, they produce more material which then becomes pus. This pus needs to go somewhere. Because there is nowhere for it to go, it leaks down into the root canal of the dead tooth and causes a periapical abscess to form at the tip of the root. This abscess will not only infect the bone tissue in the area, but the infection could also leak into your blood stream.
Facial swelling and pressure pain will shortly follow the initial appearance of the abscess. This is why it is extremely important that you don't take the end of dental pain as a sign that all is well with your dental health. It may well be the very opposite. Get to a dentist who can then perform a root canal procedure to remove the dead tissue along with any bacterial organisms.
