What Happens If I Ignore My Toothache?

Hi, Dr Thea here. One of the gentle dentists of Dental House Group.

A couple of days ago, I met a lovely patient, Zoey from Hillside, who had some chronic toothache for a long time. She came in for us to assess this tooth. She’d been to a few other practices and the pain has continued. She asked me a really great question, and it’s, why doesn’t the toothache disappear like a stomach cramp and why don’t your teeth fix themselves?

It got me thinking about that question. I thought I’ll make a short video to help you understand, will a toothache go away, and what happens if we ignore our toothaches?

First and foremost, when you get a toothache, you know that something’s not quite right. And the origin of the toothache is crucial.

The cause of a toothache could be due to many various factors. It could be because something is wrong with your actual tooth, or it could mean that something is wrong with the gum around the tooth. Occasionally a toothache could also be related to tight muscles, your jaw, or even your sinuses.

As you can see, a toothache is very complicated and it may not be where you think the problem is. So that’s why visiting the dentist, having x-rays and doing tests to assess the situation is the best way to resolve your issue.

Some toothaches are not serious and they will go away by themselves and you might not get any issues. But they are rare and few and far between. Most of the time, a toothache is a serious problem and needs attention. And if you leave it unattended, the infection will get worse and will lead to bigger problems and more expensive treatments.

For example, if you need a few fillings, but you don’t get them fixed and the infection reaches the nerve 6 months later, then those teeth will require root canal treatment to save. Something that would have cost you a few hundreds of dollars to fix in the first place, is now a few thousand dollars more expensive.

There are also many occasions where a patient tells me, “but the toothache went away so I thought everything is OK”… WRONG. Toothaches can be deceiving, and just because you’ve been in pain for a few weeks and now you’re not in pain, it doesn’t mean the issue is gone.

An abscess can be dormant growing inside your jaw, and the infection could subsequently leak out into the rest of your body and could lead to major health issues.

So even if your toothache goes away by itself, go to your dentist and get it checked out.

Here at Dental House Group, we pride ourselves on being thorough and comprehensive when diagnosing your issues, not to mention our extra gentle approach. So if you are experiencing a toothache, and want a professional opinion to have this resolved, we would love to look after you. Simply give us a call on 1800GENTLE, direct message us on social media, or complete the form on our website and we will help you organise your appointment. See you in the next video.

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