What to Do If Your Teeth Hurt after a Dental Filling

Have you recently had a dental filling procedure done and your tooth is hurting afterwards? If so, take heart. Tooth sensitivity is actually quite common after dental restorations, after all, your teeth have just experienced a minor trauma to the tooth. Your tooth will adjust fairly quickly and recover within a few weeks as it gets used to the new material. So what can you expect after a filling?

Temperature extremes – perhaps the most common cause of tooth sensitivity is a reaction to extreme temperature fluctuations. If you inhale cold air through your mouth, your newly filled tooth might react with a brief, sharp pain. This may also happen if you sip hot tea or bite into a crisp, cold apple.

Pressure – it might hurt briefly when you bite down on the filled tooth in the beginning. This will go away as the filling settles and the tooth gets accustomed to it.

Bite – if the tooth continues to hurt when you bite down on the filling, it may be that the filling is higher than the tooth’s surface and requires a reshaping. This is easy to do in the office and as soon as the bite fits properly the pain will subside.

Metals – in the beginning, if you have different metals in the mouth that touch, there may be discomfort as the tooth adjusts. Say for example, you have a gold crown, which sits right next to your newly restored silver amalgam filling. This might cause brief pain that will stop soon.

Pain signals – this can happen when the newly filled tooth sends out pain signals and its toothy neighbors feel as though they are hurting, This pain will not last long.

Decay – if the pain you are feeling is coming from the decay in the filled tooth that occurred near the tooth pulp, it is possible that the tissue is just too unhealthy to support a filling. In this case, a root canal might be needed to remove the damaged tissues.

Typical tooth sensitivity can be helped by using desensitizing toothpaste or putting a desensitizing solution on your newly filled tooth. Please let us know if you are having any tooth sensitivity which lasts longer than a few weeks.

Rest assured your beautiful smile will feel as good as new again once your filling settles. If you do have questions or concerns, we invite you to let us know, as our caring dentists, Dr. Christian Mullin and Tanya Mullin are here to restore your smile! You can reach our Shore Smiles team in the Virginia Beach area at 757.222.3737 today.