why does a toothache seems unbearable compared to any other body ache?
In: 23
From the perspective of an OMFS I’ll give you the following answers
1. Pain is relative. There is a strong psychosomatic effect when it comes to dealing with physical/emotional pain in addition to a purely psychiological one. I’ve seen patients with giant radiographic abscesses and open pulp chambers who barely even notice something is wrong yet when I go to deliver an IAN injection they nearly jump out of the chair.
2. There is only one nerve that innervates sensation to the face called the trigeminal (CN V) nerve and two of the three branches (V2 and V3) receive sensory information from the maxilla and mandible respectively. Often times there is a compounding effect when one particular tooth hurts and it sets off a chain reaction of referred pain.
3. Dental abscesses can become life threatening VERY quickly. It’s your body telling you that there is a problem which can no longer be ignored.
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