Tooth sensitivity causes major discomfort during activities such as eating, drinking, brushing, etc. While the pain is temporary, it could impact our daily lives negatively and reduce our options for food. Good thing is that tooth sensitivity is easily treatable. With a good diagnosis, you should be feeling better in no time.
Tooth sensitivity is avoidable. Visiting your dentist to check the health status of your tooth enamel, roots, and gum helps to detect early signs of tooth sensitivity. However, if you’re already suffering from tooth sensitivity, we have the best treatments for you in this article. Before that, let’s discuss some of the best ways of preventing tooth sensitivity.
Ways to Prevent Tooth Sensitivity
- Reduce the use of mouthwash
- Some mouthwashes are acidic, thus unpleasant for your gum and dentin layer. The acids present in these mouthwashes would leave your dentin exposed, leaving your teeth unprotected.
2. Avoid a hard toothbrush
- Hard toothbrushes are recommended for smokers and others with special dental conditions but notwithstanding the dental benefits, it also causes tooth sensitivity. The continuous use of hard toothbrushes erodes enamel.
3. Reduce intake of Acidic food
- Acidic foods and drinks are another cause of enamel erosion.
4. Stop bleaching
- Teeth whitening has been linked to temporary tooth sensitivity.
Treatments For Tooth Sensitivity
- Desensitizing toothpaste
- The active ingredients in desensitizing tubes of toothpaste have been known to help relieve the pain induced by sensitive teeth. Although it doesn’t cure the underlying causes, it’ll certainly give you more comfort. Before purchasing a desensitizing toothpaste, be sure to visit a dentist for a proper diagnosis and recommendation of the best desensitizing toothpaste for your condition.
2. Fluoride
- Fluoride eases the pain induced by tooth sensitivity, but also, it remedies the eroded tooth enamel. Fluoride also serves as a deterrent to tooth sensitivity, so you could apply it to your teeth if you’re trying to prevent enamel erosion.
3. Bonding
- Bonding resin is applied to the teeth for numerous reasons such as stronger teeth, repair decayed and cracked teeth, and treating tooth sensitivity. Bonding involves the resin to the sensitive surfaces.
4. Surgical gum graft
- Surgically treating your gum involves replacing damaged gum tissue in your mouth with tissue from your mouth too.
5. Root Canal
- Research has shown that the best way of treating tooth sensitivity is by cleaning the root canals. Before modern treatments of root canal existed, dentists just removed the damaged tooth, however, with modern methods, dentists have now found a way to incorporate repairing the root canal while retaining it. Also, it is now way less painful
6. Salt Solution
- A perfect home solution to a sensitive tooth is mixing salt and lukewarm water together then waggle it in your mouth for 30 seconds to 1 minute before spitting out. Repeat this solution for a couple of days and watch how it relieves the pain induced for your sensitive tooth.
7. Dental Health
- Last but not least, you should regularly maintain healthy dental hygiene. Floss adequately and brush with an appropriate toothbrush. Visit your dentist regularly or immediately you begin to feel a sharp pain in your teeth.
Tooth sensitivity could cause mild to severe pain while altering our diets and causing discomfort. However, this pain can be cured with the simple treatments above. Note, before attempting any of the treatments, be sure to consult a dentist.
