I currently have pain in my jaw because my wisdom teeth are growing. But whenever I drink something cold, the nerves go numb and so does the pain. Why is that so?
In: Biology
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Not sure if this is the case in your specific example but here goes:
“The gate control theory of pain asserts that non-painful input closes the nerve “gates” to painful input, which prevents pain sensation from traveling to the central nervous system.”
This is basically saying that your nerves are only capable of sending one type of sensation up to your brain – either pain or temperature, not both. So Ice will effectively block pain signals. This is why ice can be helpful when trying to mitigate pain, in addition to it’s anti-inflammatory effects.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gate_control_theory
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