With severe oral pain, you likely grasp you have a dental emergency. Equating a strong toothache with a cavity or tooth infection is natural. However, discomfort in your cheeks or jaw isn’t as clear-cut. You may not know if it counts as an urgent oral issue. Well, your local Auburn dentist is here to help you find out. To that end, here are some dental emergencies that cause facial pain and why to get emergency dentistry for them.
Which Dental Emergencies Involve Facial Pain?
True enough, not all facial pain relates to urgent oral problems. Such aches often stem from sinus infections, migraines, and so on. Still, some dental emergencies are known to cause face-related discomfort. The most common of these are:
Temporomandibular Joint Disorder (TMD)
Your temporomandibular joint – the body part that attaches your jaw to your skull – sometimes causes facial pain. When the joint’s functions are disrupted, the resulting disorder (TMD) can spread aches throughout your jaw.
Other symptoms of TMD include:
- Limited jaw mobility
- Clicking sounds when moving your jaw
- A Misaligned bite
- Facial Swelling
- Low Energy or Fatigue
Dental Abscess
If you don’t already know, a dental abscess is an infection of your tooth’s soft insides. It typically occurs when bacteria reach core dental nerves and blood vessels. The bacterial spread is itself caused by tooth decay, gum disease, or injury.
Other than facial pain, notable dental abscess signs are:
- Tooth or gum sensitivity
- Red, swollen gum tissue
- A foul taste in your mouth
- A high fever
Dry Socket
Face-related pain after a tooth extraction is usually due to a dry socket. This condition occurs when blood doesn’t clot at the treatment site, exposing your nerves and bone.
The symptoms of a dry socket are pretty consistent. Naturally, the biggest one is the visible loss of the blood clot around an extraction site. Other relevant signs, though, are persistent pain following the tooth extraction and a bad taste in your mouth.
Why Get Emergency Dentistry?
If you’re suffering from one of the above conditions, it won’t go away on its own. In fact, the oral issue and its pain will only fade when you get emergency dental care.
You see, dentists can easily fix dental emergencies that cause facial pain. Many offer TMJ therapy that relieves pain from TMD. For a dental abscess, they might perform root canal therapy to ease your discomfort and save your tooth. On the other hand, they could flush out your dry socket to promote healing.
When you have facial pain, don’t just brush it under the rug. Consider that it might be a dental emergency, and see your local dentist!
About the Practice
Auburn Dental Smiles is based in Auburn, WA. Led by Drs. Manpreet Dhaliwal, Navi Dhaliwal, and Brian Ferguson, our practice offers top-quality dentistry for the whole family. We thus perform preventive, cosmetic, and restorative services, as well as emergency dental treatments. Regarding the latter, our team can even perform tooth extractions and root canal therapy. For more information or to book a visit, you can reach us on our website or by phone at (253)-833-2290.
