Symptoms of Cavities
The signs and symptoms of cavities and tooth decay vary depending on their extent and location. When a cavity is just beginning,
you may not have any symptoms at all. But your dentist may be able to see that decay is starting and recommend steps to keep it from getting worse.
As the decay gets larger, it may cause such signs and symptoms as:
Symptoms of Root Canal
Sometimes no symptoms are present; however, signs you may need a root canal include:
Symptoms of Gum Disease/ Periodontal Disease:
Periodontal disease is often silent, meaning symptoms may not appear until an advanced stage of the disease.
However, warning signs of periodontal disease include the following:
- Red, swollen or tender gums or other pain in your mouth
- Bleeding while brushing, flossing, or eating hard food
- Gums that are receding or pulling away from the teeth, causing the teeth to look longer than before
- Loose/mobile/ moving teeth
- Pus between your gums and teeth
- Sores in your mouth
- Persistent bad breath
- A change in the way your teeth fit together when you bite
- A change in the fit of partial dentures.
Bruxism
Bruxism is characterized by the grinding of the teeth and typically includes the clenching of the jaw. It is an oral parafunctional activity that occurs in most humans at some time in their lives. In most people, bruxism is mild enough not to be a health problem.
While bruxism may be a diurnal or nocturnal activity, it is bruxism during sleep that causes the majority of health issues, it can even occur during short naps. Bruxism is one of the most common sleep disorders.
Symptoms of Bruxisim:
- Chronic bruxism may lead to sensitive, worn-out, decayed, fractured, loose, or missing teeth.
- Grinding or clenching break down the enamel, sometimes, in long-term Bruxers, reducing teeth to stumps.
- Instead of a white enamel cover, one often sees the more yellowish and softer dentin.
- The back teeth of some chronic Bruxers often lose their cusps and natural contours, appearing instead flat.
- When front teeth are affected, their biting surfaces are damaged. As well, the absence of enamel makes it easier for bacteria to penetrate the softer part of the teeth and produce cavities.
- With time, the condition may lead to bridges, crowns, root canals, implants, partial dentures, and even complete dentures.
- Long-term bruxism often causes changes of appearance, in different ways.
- As the teeth wear out, they become shorter. As a result, when the mouth is closed, the upper and lower jaws are nearer than they used to be, and so are the nose and chin. The skin now may bag below the eyes and curl around the lips, causing the lips to seemingly disappear. The chin recedes, and the person looks comparatively old.
- Bruxism involves excessive muscle use, leading to a build-up or enlargement (hypertrophy) of facial muscles, in long-term bruxers; this build-up may lead to a characteristic, square-jaw, appearance.
- Bruxers sometimes experience jaw tenderness; jaw pain; fatigue of facial muscles; headaches; neck aches; earaches; and hearing loss.
- Our body is not built to sustain, night in and night out, the tremendous pressures of bruxing. The teeth, as we have seen, are affected, but in some cases other parts of the head suffer too.
- Occasionally inflammation and blockage of some salivary glands. This in turn may lead to periodical swelling, pain, inflammation, and abnormal dryness of the mouth.
- Bruxism may also damage the temporomandibular joints (TMJs). Bruxism is therefore believed by most researchers to be one of the leading causes of temporomandibular disorders.
- Malocclusion, or bad bite, is more common among bruxers than in the general population. To be sure, misaligned teeth may serve as the cause of bruxism, not as its consequence. But bruxism may often involve more pressure on one side of the mouth than on the other, thereby causing malocclusion.
- Bruxers may find themselves in an uncomfortable position, for many people find the grinding sound unpleasant, irritating, or disturbing. It may wake up light sleepers, for instance.