If the diseased tooth no longer hurts, does that mean it has healed itself?

As we all know, once a tooth has a problem, toothache will often follow. However, does the disappearance of pain in the diseased tooth mean that the problem has been solved? In fact, there is more than one possibility for toothache to go away. Either it explodes in silence or it perishes in silence. This is the true meaning of toothache.

Toothache: Different Paths to the Same End

What makes dental disease unforgettable is the "deadly" pain. It goes without saying that toothache often means that there is something wrong with the teeth. But the absence of toothache does not mean that the teeth are healthy.

The part of the tooth structure that can reflect toothache is the dental nerve. It, together with the adjacent blood vessels and lymph nodes, constitutes the dental pulp. It is generally believed that once the dental pulp becomes inflamed, toothache will occur.

There are two possible outcomes for pulp inflammation and toothache: one is that pulp inflammation is treated in time when it can recover to normal, the inflammation disappears, and the toothache disappears with it; the other is that pulp inflammation has progressed from the stage where it can recover to the stage where it cannot recover to normal, and it has not been treated, the inflammation worsens, and the toothache worsens. The final outcome of pulp inflammation that is left unchecked is pulp necrosis. Although the inflammation still exists at this time, the nerves can no longer sense it, so the toothache also disappears.

It can be seen from this that whether the pulpitis is cured or left alone, the toothache will eventually disappear.

Don't rely on luck to make your toothache go away

When a tooth goes from painful to pain-free, it may mean that the tooth disease has been cured or it may mean that the tooth disease has worsened. Unfortunately, many people tend to think that as long as the tooth pain is gone, it means that the tooth disease has been cured.

And these neglected teeth may eventually explode.

This is because, after the pulp necrosis, although the tooth no longer hurts, the inflammation is still there and will become more and more severe. As the inflammatory products continue to accumulate, the pressure in the narrow and inelastic internal space of the tooth continues to increase and urgently needs to be released.

There are usually two ways for inflammatory products to be released : one is through the tooth cavity caused by tooth decay; the other is through the tooth root. While exploring ways to release inflammatory pressure, inflammatory products do not hesitate to hurt innocent people, and many surrounding tissue structures are implicated. For example, when inflammatory products are discharged through the tooth root, since the tooth root is surrounded by solid alveolar bone, if the inflammatory products want to be fully released, they can only fight their way out of the alveolar bone, resulting in a hole in the alveolar bone.

Image source: Wikipedia

The hole starts out small around the tooth root, but as inflammation worsens, it expands like a balloon and forms a tunnel that extends further and eventually opens on the gum surface.

Image source: Wikipedia

This tunnel is like a drainage tube that can drain away inflammatory products and relieve pressure inside the alveolar bone. However, this drainage method has limited ability to relieve pressure and cannot solve the dental problem from the source. Therefore, as long as the dental disease does not receive professional treatment, the result can only be more and more serious damage.

In summary, if the pain of a diseased tooth disappears, it may be the beginning of a bigger crisis. Therefore, once you find that something is wrong with your teeth, you should see a doctor as soon as possible and never tolerate it.