Teeth Pain (Toothache)

Toothache is a complaint that is commonly encountered in daily practice. Tooth pain refers to pain around the teeth or jaws, indicating inflammation and possible infection. In mild cases, besides the toothache there  is an increased sensitivity of the teeth to sour, cold and hot food.

However, severe cases may also be accompanied by headache, swollen cheeks, bleeding gums, difficulty in eating, fever, chills, or even insomnia and restlessness.

Most tooth pain is due to teeth and gum problems, probably caused by a lack of good dental hygiene. Proper self-care for teeth and gum is therefore extremely important in preventing tooth pain.

According to TCM, toothache is normally caused by invasion of Wind-Heat, uprising of Stomach-Fire, hyperactivity of Deficient-Fire from the Kidney, deficiency of Kidney-Yang or bacterial infection of the teeth.

In Western medicine, it is believed that tooth pain is caused by gum disease, such as gingivitis and periodontitis, infected gums, dental caries (tooth decay), loose or fractured teeth, tooth root sensitivities, or broken fillings, dental abscess, etc.