Toothache is nearly always worse at night, and that is not your imagination. Lying down raises the blood pressure in your head, which increases the pressure inside an already inflamed tooth. There is also nothing to distract you. This page covers what genuinely helps overnight and what the pain is telling you.
What the type of pain usually means
- Sharp and brief with cold, gone in seconds. Often sensitivity or a small area of decay. Not urgent, but it will not fix itself.
- Lingering ache after hot or cold, thirty seconds or more. The nerve is inflamed. This is the stage where a root canal starts to become the likely answer.
- Throbbing that wakes you, or pain on biting down. Usually the nerve or the tissue around the root. Needs to be looked at promptly.
- Pain with facial swelling, fever, or trouble swallowing. An infection that is spreading. Go to a hospital emergency department tonight rather than waiting.
What actually helps overnight
Sleep propped up on an extra pillow so your head is above your heart. Use a cold compress on the outside of the cheek, twenty minutes on and twenty off. Take your usual over the counter pain relief and follow the packet directions. Rinse gently with warm salt water. Keep to soft food and chew on the other side.
What does not help, and what makes it worse
Do not hold an aspirin or a crushed tablet against the gum. It burns the soft tissue and does nothing for the tooth underneath. Heat on the face will increase throbbing if there is any infection. Clove oil numbs briefly but irritates the gum if it is used repeatedly. And an old antibiotic left over from something else is a genuinely bad idea, because it is usually the wrong drug at the wrong dose and it can quiet an infection just enough to hide how serious it is.
Pain that disappears is not good news
This is the part most people get wrong. When a tooth has ached for days and then suddenly stops, it often means the nerve inside has died. The pain is gone because the nerve is gone. The infection is still there and will usually return as an abscess. If your toothache vanished on its own, book an appointment anyway.
Being seen in Windsor
Rose City Dental is open Monday to Thursday until 7pm, Friday until 5pm and Saturday from 9am to 2pm, and we hold same-day room for pain during those hours. Call 519-252-5444 first thing. You do not need to be an existing patient.
Depending on what we find, treatment is usually a filling, a root canal if the nerve is involved, or occasionally an extraction. You get the cost in writing before anything starts. If it is the middle of the night right now, read what to do when you need a 24 hour emergency dentist in Windsor.