Dental emergencies are inconvenient, shocking, quite often painful and sometimes fatal. Vast majority of dental emergencies are the result of neglect and or differed treatments. Visiting dentist in regular intervals averaging twice a year could identify and prevent dental emergencies.
Most of dental emergencies are associated with some type of dental infection. Dental emergencies are sometimes chronic infections and sometimes acute. A typical toothache is result of inflammation/ infection at or near the nerve component of a tooth or teeth. For the most cases when a tooth has started hurting it may need a root-canal treatment or extraction of the tooth. A dentist has to study the case and arrive to a diagnosis. Treatment of a toothache is an easy operation for a dentist with experience of handling dental emergencies.
Gingivitis (gum disease) could be a cause of dental emergency. There is a way to distinguish the pain caused by inflamed nerve part of a tooth (toothache) or gingivitis pain. In general gingivitis pain is dull, achy and continuous. Gingivitis pain does not get better or worse with temperature change in the mouth. Also, gingivitis pain does not fluctuate with our body position. Laying dawn or standing up does not change the pain levels. On the other hand, toothache caused by inflamed nerve chamber of a tooth feels like an electric shock. At first the shocking pain is instant and very short lived/ usually lasts about a second. As the infection and inflammation increases, pain duration increase as well. Tooth becomes temperature sensitive. At early stages tooth becomes cold and sweet sensitive. At advance stages of a toothache, tooth becomes hot sensitive. Heat of the body makes the tooth aches more. In these situations patients report that cold drinks make the tooth feels better. Toothache durations becomes longer than five seconds and pain levels become exhausting. Pain levels increase when the person lays dawn. At such stage toothache becomes uphauling and unbearable. At such a stage tooth would need a root canal treatment in order to releaf the pain and save the tooth.
If an achy tooth is structurally sound, it may be treated with a root canal treatment. If a tooth has advance caries where dental decay has reached the roots of the tooth, for the most cases, tooth is no longer savable and has to be extracted. When a tooth is root canal treated, it needs to be rebuilt and covered with a full cover structure such as a crown.