Maintaining good oral hygiene and attending your regular dental checkups are your best defense against dental problems. You’re the one who brushes, flosses, schedules your appointments, and you’re also likely to be the first one to notice the signs of dental problems that might crop up in between visits. Keep your eyes peeled for some of the most common signs of common dental problems!

Toothache

A toothache can range from pain that is mildly annoying to excruciating. While a toothache’s origin can often be traced to tooth decay, there are a whole host of potential causes, like the following:

• Tooth infection or an abscessed tooth
• Cracked or fractured tooth
• Gum infection or gum disease
• Impacted tooth

Make a dental appointment if your tooth pain is severe, if it lasts for more than a day or two, or if you are also suffering from a fever.

Sensitivity

Is that first bite of ice cream or first sip of coffee/tea/hot chocolate sometimes a painful experience? Sensitive teeth have several possible causes:

• Cavities
• Gum disease
• Worn enamel

Tooth sensitivity is generally not an urgent problem, but you should be sure to mention it at your next checkup so your dental team can find out the cause of the issue. In the meantime, add desensitizing toothpaste to your oral hygiene routine.

Sore Gums/Bleeding Gums

Healthy gums should not hurt and they certainly shouldn’t bleed regularly. It’s likely a sign of gum disease if your gums are sore and/or bleeding regularly or a lot.

It’s best to start treating gum disease as soon as you notice any signs of gum disease, so we can reverse it (if caught early enough) or halt its progression to serious periodontitis.

Your biyearly checkups at the dentist are so important! At Middletown Commons Family Dental, we check your mouth and teeth for red flags in order to catch issues at the budding stages, before they become full-blown problems. If any of the above symptoms sound familiar to you, schedule an appointment so we can check it out before your minor toothache becomes a huge headache!