Referred Pain – It’s a Pain! – Causes – Part 2
The thing about pain….it’s all in your head!
Sometimes a person will perceive pain to be from a certain part of the body that has had pain before, even though that is not the source of the pain. The brain approximates the pain from experience and not always from reality.
The classic example is an ulcer. An ulcer is the loss of the protective cover (epithelium) over the next layer of the mucosa (layer of skin) exposing the sensitive connective tissue. This can be from many causes including iron deficiency, trauma, viral infection and even unknown causes. The products of the mouth, such as bacteria and certain foods irritate the layer and can be quite painful. People may perceive it to be a toothache, and many do not believe you it’s an ulcer.
Exposed root surface from brushing too hard is sort of cause a “tooth ulcer” exposing the dentine that wasn’t meant to be exposed to the mouth.
The pain can be extreme and can difficult to perceive which tooth it is, especially if a number of teeth have exposed roots.
Cracked teeth gives pain when the crack opens, and stops hurting when the crack closes. The problem is the tooth with an obvious crack is not necessarily the culprit as it has cracked and is not cracking. This means the crack causing the pain is not seen yet.
Wonderful as this is intermittent pain. The pain seems to disappear when they are in the chair. The pain can travel and maybe perceived in a tooth that has had pain before.
A hint of where the origin of the pain is usually the tooth where the pain first started. The initial crack can be quite painful. Anyway, the ultimate diagnosis of a crack tooth is when the cacked portion comes off.
Next in the Series: Referred Pain – It’s a Pain! – Causes – Part 3
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