How Can I Tell if it is My Sinuses or Teeth That are Hurting?
When tooth pain arises, it can be an unpleasant feeling, no matter what the cause may be. Tooth pain can lead to a variety of other symptoms such as headache, jaw pain, extended teeth pain, facial pain, nausea, and more. Finding the root cause of your tooth pain is important to relieve the pain and stop any further symptoms from arising as a result. Many people may not know that sinuses can be linked to pain in the teeth. When sinus infections become severe, the pain spreads throughout the face and into the upper molars. So, are your sinuses causing your tooth pain? Let’s delve further into the facts, so that in the future, you’ll be able to better identify your pain and fix the underlying root of your issue.
Sinus Infection Symptoms
First, let’s identify common symptoms of a sinus infection. A sinus infection can be either viral or bacterial. Most sinus infections start as a cold, but when cold symptoms last longer than two weeks, it usually develops into a more serious issue and becomes a sinus infection. Sinus infection symptoms include prolonged nasal congestion, pain and fluid in the ears, postnasal drip and nasal discharge that is green or yellowish in color, sore throat, headache, facial pain under the cheeks and above the eyes, slight cough, and jaw and teeth pressure or pain.
Having a variety of these symptoms as well as teeth pain is what will let you know that the pain in your teeth is being caused by sinuses as opposed to some other dental issue. When sinuses are the root cause, you will know, because you will feel sick in many other ways. You may have a fever, body aches, feel loss of energy, and overall, just feel like your immune system is down. When your tooth pain is caused by other issues, your mouth will be the only thing hurting and the pain will be much more focused.
Sinus Tooth Pain vs Dental Tooth Pain
When specifically identifying the differences in sinus tooth pain and other dental tooth pain, (which can vary widely depending on the issue) sinus tooth pain usually occurs in the upper molars. The sinuses are located behind the cheek bones and below your eyes. While sinuses can also affect the lower teeth, it is the upper teeth that are most commonly affected by blocked sinuses and sinus infections.
Treatment for Sinusitis
If you determine that your teeth pain is caused by a sinus infection, it is important to go to your doctor and get antibiotics to treat the infection as a whole. This will cure your teeth pain as well as any other symptoms you may be experiencing. There are a variety of different antibiotics that can be prescribed to cure sinus infections and all of them are effective solutions. Without antibiotics, sinus infections can become chronic and lead to much more serious complications such as a deviated septum, meningitis, or brain abscess.
Treatment for Toothache
If you determine that you do not have any other symptoms of a sinus infection, then the cause of your tooth pain is probably not related to your sinuses. At this point, your next step should be to schedule an appointment with your dentist. A dentist will be able to take x-rays and/or look in your mouth to determine what might be causing your pain. The dentist can discuss options to manage your pain and eliminate whatever is causing the problem.
If you are in pain, we will make sure to take care of you and find a way to fix the problem. Once we eliminate sinuses as the root cause for your dental pain, we will get to work on treating your teeth in the most efficient way possible. Then, we will provide preventative maintenance to make sure the pain never comes back in the future.
If you are one of those patients who has dental fears or anxiety, we will do our best to keep you comfortable and at ease during your visit with laughing gas, oral sedatives, entertainment media, and/or IV sedation if needed. We never want you to remain in pain because you’re hesitant to come to us.
