Understanding And Managing Dental Discomfort
Posted on: 15 January 2018
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Pain is the body's alarm system, but it can be a bit too alarming at times. A lot of preventative maintenance--including dentistry--can lead to some pain from certain procedures, or intensifying discomfort from just the fear of that discomfort. Pain can actually be overcome fairly easily through a thorough understanding of what your body is trying to tell you, and a few details about certain types of dental pain can help you shrug off the alarms--at least while a dentist is helping you maintain your teeth and gums.
Teeth Cleaning Discomfort
The nerves and blood vessels of your teeth are beneath multiple layers of other materials, but you can still feel when something touches your teeth--even to a painful degree. This is because your teeth are both nested in a snug, somewhat flexible socket while being rigid enough to act as a percussion instrument.
When anything scrapes against your teeth, the vibrations are being sent through enamel and to the nerves. Enamel has a resonance that can send a quite consistent, ringing sound throughout its material, and your nerves are assaulted by these vibrations.
This warning is necessary if you don't know why the vibrations are happening. You don't want to scrape away the enamel and expose the insides of your tooth or lose the tooth completely, but you don't need to worry about such problems with a dentist. They're professionals, and even in the event of a mistake, you're already in a place that can fix the problem.
It's fairly difficult to accidentally scrape through enamel to a damaging, surgery-requiring degree. If material is scrapped away from even an accidental twitch of the wrist, it's not enough to break anything unless you already have brittle teeth that need replacement, so don't worry about the scraping pain.
Do Anesthesia Needles Hurt?
It may seem counter-intuitive; a needle stabbing somewhere in order to get rid of pain. It works, but you need to trick your mind into not worrying about the pain if there is a noticeable issue.
Anesthesia technology is getting better every year, and there are many ways to get to a numb sensation while other dental operations are carried out. The needles these days are barely a pinch for many people, so it becomes an issue of realizing that the small pain is only a temporary issue.
You could go for sedation instead. Breathable anesthesia or oral medication can help you get prepared for the dental procedures if you're just not a fan of needles. Contact a dental professional to talk about different methods of coping with pain, ranging from learning to appreciate your body's ability to warn and adapt to improved ways of dampening pain through sedation dentistry.