Sensitive Teeth: Is it possible to treat the pain?

Sensitive teeth: What treatments are available ?

There can be nothing more unpleasant than feeling a sharp pain as you start sipping a hot drink or as you start enjoying a nice sorbet ice cream… You may also experience pain as you start to bit into acidic fruit for example? Does this ring a bell? If it does, it probably means that you are suffering from sensitive teeth, a condition that can unfortunately interfere with even the tiniest pleasures of life.

You need not though be missing out on those small pleasures of life at all. There are solutions available to do away entirely with heightened teeth sensitivity. After treatment, you will be back to enjoying those simple pleasures again without worrying about the pain that you used to experience. What should I do then? In this article, we will take a thorough look at the subject of sensitive teeth.

What are Sensitive Teeth ?

Sensitive teeth, sometimes referred to as hypersensitivity, cause a sharp, short-lived pain that only occurs in certain situations. This can happen for example when you drink sweet, acidic, hot, or cold foods or drinks, breath in cold air, or even just by brushing the sensitive area with your toothbrush. Sometimes it can occur when you just touch your teeth or without any reason at all.

Sensitive teeth is generally due to gum retraction which exposes the lower part of the tooth (or teeth, depending on the case) which in turn triggers the actual pain. Tooth enamel wear of the is also a common cause. This is often the case with people who brush their teeth too hard.

What can you do about sensitive teeth ?

It is important to consult a dentist to make sure that tooth sensitivity is due to enamel wear and gum retraction because the pain can also be caused by the onset of cavities or through repeated teeth clenching.

Once the source of the hypersensitivity has been identified, making just a few simple changes may be enough to resolve the pain.

We recommend the following changes:

Use a toothpaste adapted for sensitive teeth.

Buy a soft-bristled toothbrush.

Do not brush your teeth too hard.

These are just a few precautions that can sometimes be enough to calm or even eliminate dental pain in just a few days.

What if my tooth sensitivity doesn’t go away ?

We always recommend that you make an appointment for a thorough dental check-up. Even if the dental pain does seem to subside, it could be that the underlying cause is deeper, and requires further treatment. The longer you wait to take care of your teeth, the harder and more difficult they can be to treat.

During your dental check-up, your dentist will assess your teeth and present you with recommendations to eliminate dental sensitivity as quickly as possible. There are a variety of options available to relieve tooth sensitivity such as fluoride varnish, gum grafting, enamel reconstruction and tooth devitalization.

So, the next time you go pass by an ice cream shop, you won’t be worrying about your sensitive teeth anymore but rather about what flavour of ice-cream to choose.

Book an appointment today for a complete check-up