1. When you feel like your teeth are loose or aching when you bite food, you could have periodontitis. Periodontitis is an irreversible and advanced gum disease that damages the gums and bone that supports the tooth.
Without proper flossing and professional dental scaling, the bone that surrounds the teeth will recede slowly and progressively.
It is hard to notice symptoms of periodontitis but the most common signs include hardened plaque and gum bleeding around the teeth. Periodontitis does not happen overnight, so prevention is more important than any treatment. In some severe cases, we may have to prescribe an antibacterial mouth rinse and in the worst case, an extraction might be needed. Visit us regularly (once/twice per year) to receive a dental exam, dental cleaning and valuable oral health education.
2. When your back teeth generally hurt when biting down, it could be effects of teeth grinding or clenching under stress. When you clench or grind your teeth, the horizontal forces causes the surrounding bone and ligaments to expand and get stressed. The expanded surrounding structures cause the tooth to become loose that later leads to pain when biting your teeth together. Most of the time, this condition gets better on its own with proper care and caution. However, if the pain persists after 1 week, visit us to get a customized night guard to protect your teeth from further damage.
3. You have swelling around the root of the tooth, feeling achiness for more than 10 minutes, and/or a headache associated with tooth pain, then you might have a dental infection. In some cases, the tooth gets loose and hurts when you bite. If this happens, call us to book a dental exam to have the tooth examined and get a prescription for antibiotics or pain killers. Dr. Park will explain all the options for treatment so you can decide on what to do with this condition.