Sinus Problems and Tooth Pain
Sinus problems can cause a myriad of symptoms. Some of the symptoms are what you would expect, runny nose, blocked nasal passages, congestion, pressure in the sinuses and headaches to name a few. Sometimes, though, you may experience symptoms that seem totally unrelated to sinusitis.
One of the most common symptoms that seem unrelated to sinusitis is pain in a tooth. Sinus problems can cause severe tooth pain. There have been many instances where people experience tooth pain so great they end up seeing a dentist. The dentist upon a thorough exam finds absolutely nothing wrong with the tooth.
Later, after that same patient is diagnosed with sinusitis and gets the proper treatment the tooth pain goes away. That is a classic example of a symptom of sinusitis appearing to be something else. This happens more than you would think.
Why can sinus problems lead to tooth pain? It has to do with the way sinusitis manifests itself and the position of the sinus cavities in relation to your teeth.
A sinus infection is an infection of the sinus cavities in your head. Two of the sinus cavities, the maxillary sinuses, are located on either side of the nose behind the cheek. These are the sinuses that cause tooth pain.
When a sinus cavity becomes infected the cause is a blockage that does not allow the sinus to drain. When a sinus cannot drain, it can’t rid itself of the mucus it produces to clean the area of bacteria. Once the drainage is cut off, the bacteria in the sinus begins to multiply. The bacteria count can quickly go from hundreds, found in normal sinuses, to hundreds of thousands or even millions.
You have pus, mucus and air trapped in the infected sinus. Without anywhere to go the fluids in the sinus build up pressure. The pressure turns into pain. Pain in the maxillary sinuses is felt in the cheeks and surrounding areas. One of those areas is your teeth.
An infected maxillary sinus will cause pain and sometimes swelling in the area of the cheek. You might feel pain under your eye and you might feel pain in the tooth. It could be severe enough that you feel like you have a bad toothache.
Not only can pain be caused by the pressure on the inside of the sinus, it can be caused by pressure on the outside as well. Along with the mucus and fluids trapped in the blocked sinus, air is also trapped. Any air spaces in your body have to have a pressure equal to the pressure outside your body. When open and not blocked, air flows in and out of the sinuses freely.
If there is a change in the barometric pressure, your sinuses compensate because the airway is open. When there is a blockage the air in the sinus cannot equalize to the outside air pressure. If the pressure outside increases, that can create a vacuum in the sinus. This causes more pain in the area around your teeth. Another way a blocked sinus can cause tooth pain.
The good thing about tooth pain caused by sinus problems is that once the sinus problem is treated properly the tooth pain goes away. Treatment always consists of two things. Kill the infection and open the blockage. Once those two things happen the tooth pain will be gone.
If you are experiencing tooth pain and there is no apparent dental reason for this, the cause may be sinusitis. Get diagnosed and treated by your health care professional.
