Pulp tooth - This is a disease associated with inflammation of the pulp (a beam with a large number of nerve endings and blood vessels located in the tooth). Most often, inflammation occurs when complications of advanced caries occur, but this may be due to unqualified dentist actions or when installing a poor-quality filling.
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Symptoms of pulpitis of the tooth
Pulpitis can be identified by several signs, both internal and external, but it's very difficult to do it yourself, as they are very similar to other dental diseases, therefore, if any, it is necessary to consult a dentist. There are several forms of pulpitis of the tooth and the symptoms depend on it, in general they are similar, however, the degree of pain symptoms varies. Pulpitis happens:
- acute;
- purulent;
- chronic.
In appearance, you can identify it by a gray tooth enamel, bleeding and redness of the gums, tooth mobility. A fistula (hole in the gum) and edema may appear around it.
The first signs of pulpitis also manifest themselves in acute pain on external stimuli, on cold and hot drops, the reaction can even be on inhaled air and biting something. If a sharp toothache increases at night, then pulpitis begins to progress.
It is rather difficult to determine a diseased tooth without external signs, as with pulpitis, the pain usually goes through the nerves to half of the head. The pain can be given to the ear if a tooth is damaged in the lower jaw or in the temple if the disease is on the tooth of the upper jaw.
If pulpitis is not treated on time, it may go into purulent formin which pain turns into shooting (pulsating), the intervals between the tearing blows are reduced to a minimum, and the pain can even completely disappear into a permanent one.
An increase in body temperature, as well as an increase in nearby lymph nodes and pain in them, are indicators of acute pulpitis. Pain in the tooth at the same time can occur independently, without external stimuli. It can be distinguished from ordinary caries by the fact that with caries a sharp pain from an external stimulus disappears almost immediately, and with pulpitis it will last another 10-15 minutes.
If you do not treat this disease, such pulpitis become chronic, due to which the pulp tissue grows, a putrid odor from the mouth appears, pain may be worse from hot food (it may decrease from cold). The pain can disappear altogether or be of a rare aching character with periodic exacerbations as in the acute form.
Is it possible to determine the pulp by the picture?
With acute or aching pain the patient turns to the doctor to determine and eliminate its causes. On examination, the dentist performs a series of procedures - tapping a tooth, the direction of air flow to determine the reaction, and others. If there are no external signs of pulpitis, and the rest of the symptoms cause many similar diseases, the patient is usually sent to take a photo (X-ray) of a sick tooth.
However, you should know that it is impossible to identify pulp in any form from a photo, since pulp is a soft tissue, and X-rays are reflected and show only solid ones.Therefore, in such a picture, such a disease will not be displayed in any way; a carious cavity may be the only indirect indication. In any case, to determine the disease in the absence of external signs, you can only open the tooth enamel, under which the dentist will see the damaged pulp tissue.
The only exception is purulent inflammation, in which soft tissues die off and toxic substances are released into the internal cavity of the tooth, which affects the bone part - this will show the photo.
Causes of pulpitis
In order to more accurately understand what is pulpitis of the tooth, first of all it is necessary to consider because of what it happens. The main cause of this disease is the ingress of harmful microorganisms on the soft tissue of the pulp through a hole in the tooth, that is, untreated caries on time may lead to the development of pulpitis. However, these same microorganisms can be introduced into the tooth with the non-professional actions of a dentist in the treatment of a tooth. There are other causes of the disease, so consider pulpitis, dividing it according to the factors of occurrence.
- Caries not cured in a timely manner. It is considered one of the main causes of pulpitis, because caries itself occurs when exposed to pathogenic microorganisms. Initially, in case of caries disease, the pulp is not in danger, as there is a strip of dentin not affected by caries between it and the tooth. However, if the tooth is not cured in time, caries continues to destroy more and more hard tissue, penetrates deep into the tooth and eventually ends up in the pulp chamber, where it causes inflammation.
- Retrograde pulpitis. If you have chronic periodontitis severe or even moderate, it can also cause additional tooth disease - pulpitis. This is due to the presence of rather deep paradontal pockets, which can reach the middle of the tooth root and even more. In such pockets, aggressive microflora develops strongly, which begins to cover the entire area of the tooth from root to apex, where it penetrates into the pulp through the root canals and leads to inflammation. So, not curing one disease, you can quickly earn extra.
- Traumatic pulpitis. As a result of any injury of a tooth (a blow, a bruise or a split of a part of a tooth), a situation may occur that the blood supply system is disrupted in the pulp. This will lead to its inflammation, and sometimes even to death.
- External stimuli. Also, pulpitis may occur due to exposure to the tooth of some chemical irritants, such as drugs, acids or alkalis. Even a common infectious disease or the presence of an infection in the blood can lead to this trouble.
Medical errors
Pulpitis under the seal.
Occurs after treatment of caries with non-professional actions of a dentist. The reasons for its occurrence may be several:
- if the doctor has not cleaned the cavity of the tooth well enough, and even the smallest piece of carious tissue has remained under the filling, after a while it will start to develop further and reach the pulp;
- if the dentist is in a hurry when working, quickly drilling out a tooth or cooling it insufficiently with water, thermal burn of the pulp may occurwhich leads to this disease;
- Another medical mistake is overdrying the canals with an air jet — this is called aseptic inflammation, that is, pulpitis develops in the tooth even without microorganisms entering it.
It is also quite often that such a disease can develop when treating caries of a deep form, since it is more complex and has its own nuances.
Pulpitis under the crown.
If a doctor takes live teeth under the crowns, then it is possible to get a burn of the pulp during their grinding. This is again a medical mistake due to haste or insufficient cooling of the teeth with water. Unfortunately, pulpitis in this case can not be determined immediately, as inflammation develops gradually.The signs will be the aching or sharp pains on the grind teeth, after the crowns have been fixed.
Differences from other dental diseases
Unfortunately, quite often dental diseases have very similar symptoms and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish one disease from another. For example, the same pulpitis has almost the same symptoms with ordinary caries, periodontitis and trigeminal neuralgia. How to distinguish this disease from others before going to the doctor when it is necessary to take urgent first aid measures? Despite common signs, there are several distinctive nuances pointing to pulpitis.
If you have caries, the pain usually occurs only if there is any external irritant (cold, hot, biting, etc.). As soon as the irritant is removed, the aching or sharp pain disappears immediately. With chronic pulpitis, even if you remove the external stimulus, the aching pain continues for at least 10-15 minutes. And in acute pulpitis, pain arises spontaneously, both sharp and aching, especially aggravated at night.
Neuralgia of the trigeminal nerve is accompanied by very strong sharp pains, which is also possible with the strong development of acute pulpitis. However, the difference in these diseases is that the pains in the first case die out by night or disappear altogether, but on the contrary, with acute pulpitis, they intensify on the contrary.
Also pulpitis is often confused with exacerbation. chronic periodontitisHowever, it is easy to distinguish yourself here, since in the latter case any external physical effects on the tooth are very painful, for example, tapping on it or biting. When pulpitis, all these actions do not cause any negative reactions of the patient.
Also, the exacerbation of chronic periodontitis can be easily seen on the x-ray photo, it will show negative changes in the top of the diseased tooth. And pulpitis, as we already know, is not shown in the picture at all, because it is a disease of soft tissues that do not reflect X-rays.
Danger of pulpitis
In no case should the treatment of pulpitis be delayed, and it is necessary to consult a dentist the sooner the better, preferably immediately after the onset of symptoms. Usually treatment of this disease is successful, but the norm is that the pain does not disappear immediately, it takes some time. However, if after treatment the pain returned or intensified, then pulpitis is not a medical condition or a complication has gone. In this case, it is necessary to urgently consult a doctor and treat the aching tooth.
If you do not do this and start the disease, it can lead to the development of another trouble - periodontitis, as an infection from the inflamed pulp begins to penetrate beyond its limits, developing all over the tooth and starting to destroy not only soft but also hard tissues. If you run pulpitis, you may end up losing the entire tooth and have to remove it.
Among other things, with purulent pulpitis, an abscess is possible - accumulation in the tissues of pus. This, in turn, can lead to the development of cellulitis, if there is a breakthrough of accumulated pus in the soft tissues of the face. Another unpleasant scenario is purulent inflammation of the bone marrow or osteomyelitis. Quite rare, but still there were cases of development of sepsis in humans (blood infection) due to untreated pulpitis in a timely manner.
All these diseases are more than unpleasant and dangerous, therefore timely treatment and prevention of pulpitis is important for your healthBecause such a chronic disease spreads inflammatory foci throughout the human body. This can lead to the development of a large number of chronic dangerous diseases of internal organs.
Prevention and first aid
Prevention of this disease is quite simple and, in principle, is not particularly different from the usual prophylaxis of the entire oral cavity.As already mentioned, the most common cause of pulpitis is untimely. cured caries, so regular dentist visit will help you avoid not only this unpleasant disease, but also other possible diseases of the teeth and gums.
Proper oral care will also help to avoid many troubles. Brush your teeth at least twice a day, use a quality paste and brush, help yourself with dental floss and rinse and this will be the best prevention of any disease.
And, of course, proper nutrition is necessary for our entire body, not just our teeth. It should contain nutrients and substances necessary vitamins and calcium. And fluoridated water will help strengthen tooth enamel.
If, nevertheless, such a nuisance as pulpitis occurred, in order to relieve the first painful sensations before going to the doctor, use the following tips:
- To relieve acute or aching pain, take a pain reliever that suits you and usually should always be in your first aid kit. This may be paracetamol, ibuprofen, analgin or others;
- rinse your mouth with warm soda or saline (one teaspoon per glass of water). This is necessary in order to clear the carious cavity from possible irritants that have fallen into it, for this it is best to collect the solution into the genus and keep it for at least a minute. But in no case rinsing should not be hot, you will achieve only more pain;
- herbal teas will also be good, any that you find in your home medicine cabinet - St. John's wort, calendula, chamomile, eucalyptus, sage, etc.
When providing first aid for acute pulpitis in any case warm warming compresses should not be applied to the affected tooththey only increase the pain and the inflammation will develop stronger. The same applies to any drugs that act locally - you should not put something in the cavity of the tooth, you only worsen the situation. If there are no other painkillers, it is better to do without them and confine yourself to rinsing the mouth.
And remember, all such methods are only a temporary preventive measure; in order to identify and eliminate the problem, it is necessary to contact a dentist as soon as possible, who can determine whether it is pulpitis or another tooth disease.
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