In part two of my 72 part series (just kidding) on tooth pain, I'll be discussing what's going on when your tooth is sensitive to cold...and I mean really sensitive. Major cold sensitivity is defined as pain that is intense and lingers for more than a few seconds. If you drink something cold and have to stop what you are doing to wince for a minute or two, that's major cold sensitivity. To explain what's going on, I'm going to try something a little different in this post: a tale about castles and invaders.
Note: The following analogy requires your imagination to be properly configured and switched to the "On" position.
In medieval times castles were built to help defend villages against invaders. When an invading army arrived on the scene, the entire village would retreat into the castle, the drawbridge would shut, and the castle's heavy brick and stone ramparts would deter the invaders...initially. However, if the invaders were persistent (and just about all were), they would set up a siege and pelt the castle walls with boulders from their catapults -- slowly turning them to dust. This siege could take months. In the end, though, the castle's defenses would inevitably fall, and the invaders would storm its inner sanctums and plunder everything. A lot of fighting and chaos would ensue.
Castle walls? Invaders? Is this the new Jerry Bruckheimer film? Let's break down the metaphor:
-The castle is actually a tooth.
-The villagers are the tooth's innermost nerves and blood vessels (see my last post if you don't understand this part).
-The invaders are the bacteria that cause tooth decay.
Once that bacteria arrives on your tooth and starts its siege, it slowly pelts away at your tooth's very strong outer walls (tooth enamel). But instead of using boulders to slowly destroy your tooth, it uses acids derived from the sugar you eat (think about this little war going on next time you are sipping a 64 oz Big Gulp of Mountain Dew). The destruction of the tooth's wall results in a cavity, and as the cavity grows it moves the bacteria closer and closer to the vulnerable inner part of your tooth. Sometimes, when it's close to the the tooth pulp, mild cold sensitivity will ensue. Regardless, eventually the cavity will break through and the chaos of the destruction of the village and its inhabitants (your pulp) will result in strong tooth sensitivity. In simpler terms, your pulp tissue is being destroyed by bacteria and is beyond the point of saving.
The severity of this pulp destruction due to bacterial infection manifests itself in multiple forms and degrees of pain, and I'll save that for my next post.
Back to the analogy; let's consider the heroic intervention of another army who happens upon this problem in the castle's hour of need, wipes out the invaders in one fell swoop, and leaves the castle repaired as best it can. That would be great, right? But alas, sometimes the army arrives too late, the walls are leveled, the village is plundered. The only thing the heroic army can do is destroy the invaders from within the castle, clean up the destruction, and repair the walls as best it can. Who is this gallant army? You guessed it, it's your neighborhood dentist! And that destruction of the invaders before they level the walls is a filling of course!
But what does a dentist do if this bacteria "levels your tooth's walls" and invades the pulp? That, my friends, requires a root canal - and the repair is a dental crown. Fortunately, the lack of a pulp (remember, all destroyed) actually makes no difference to the function of your tooth.
There you have it! Strong cold sensitivity explained! The moral of this tale? See your dentist if you experience this, as the pain could get worse. Why? That, as they say, is a tale for another post.
-DRS
Northford Family Dental
Disclaimer: All of the information presented in Dr. Sherberg's blogs cannot be used as the sole source of a dental diagnosis. Only a visit to the dentist can provide that.
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