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Allergies and Tooth Pain: Can Allergies Really Give You Toothache?

Are those facial aches your sinuses or a dental issue?

Allergies are the bugbear of many people, hitting every year during pollen season or coming up through unexpected contact with an allergen. If you suffer from frequent allergic reactions, pain in your face and jaw is probably a constant issue – but how can you tell whether the pain is a normal reaction, or a dental issue?

The effects of allergies can cause both phantom pains and real dental issues. It’s important to know what your mouth is telling you, and what to do about it.

The wide-ranging effects of allergies

While most people who are allergic know their usual symptoms very well, allergies can result in an unexpected range of reactions, and a lot of these have an impact on your dental health:

Swelling in the lips, tongue, and tissues of the mouth

Nasal congestion

Sore throat

Headaches

Muscle tension 

The range of symptoms caused by allergies comes from the body’s basic response to an allergen. The body responds by gearing up the immune system, which is designed to attack infectious microorganisms. As the immune system involves organs all over the body, the immune response to an allergen can involve many areas of your body.

Allergens can also enter the body by being inhaled, ingested or absorbed through the skin. As the body gets in gear to flush out or attack the allergen, the immediate area that came into contact with the allergen will be affected, but other areas will become involved too.

Tooth pain and allergies: how it works

A tooth ache is not an unusual symptom of environmentally-triggered allergies. If you come into contact with an allergen – such as dog or cat hair, dust, or pollen – your body has an immune response, trying to flush out the allergen or attack it if it’s already in your system.

When it comes to environmental allergens, your sinuses are usually the first affected, and this is actually how your teeth begin to ache. Your system responds to the allergen by filling the sinuses with mucus. This creates a feeling of pressure and occasionally pain.

 

The pressure in your sinuses can have the knock-on effect of irritating the nerves in your teeth, as the tooth roots are pressed down upon. Your upper molars are particularly likely to be affected, and you may notice an ache in the upper back part of your mouth, similar to that caused by a cavity.

Pain in the teeth isn’t the only effect allergies have on your dental health. Because of the wide-ranging effects you feel when suffering an allergic reaction, the ecosystem of your mouth can be affected in multiple ways, such as dryness in the mouth due to mouth breathing or medication or teeth grinding caused by muscle tension.

Facial pain and allergies

One of the more disturbing symptoms of allergies affecting the sinuses is pain in the upper jaw and facial area. It’s entirely possible to mistake such pain for a very serious developing dental problem.

As the sinuses are a series of cavities in the face, the pain caused by them can be felt in unusual places. Referred pain from blocked sinuses can feel like your teeth are being squished together, much like having an overcrowded jaw. Depending on the areas in which you are experiencing sinus blockages, you might feel pain more on one side of your face than the other, and this pain can be similar to the feeling of a developing tooth abscess.

As an abscess can be a serious issue, it’s important to continue to see your dentist when you experience these symptoms.

Jaw pain and allergies

Pressure from blocked sinuses isn’t the only reason for experiencing pain in the mouth and jaw. The whole-body effect of allergies can have an impact on your mouth via the muscles in your jaw.

The irritation of dealing with an allergy has an effect across your whole body. Seasonal allergies frequently bring with them headaches and watery eyes, and both of these can cause muscles to tense up in the rest of your body. As muscles tense in one area of the body, tension is carried down the line, ultimately resulting in a build-up of pain in certain areas.

For many people, this results in pain in the shoulders, neck and jaw. You may find that when your sinuses clog up, your bottom teeth as well as your top teeth begin to ache. This is not necessarily a cause for worry, but it’s still a good idea to consult a dentist.

Tension experienced in the jaw can be a danger to teeth in other ways, however. A tense jaw often results in clenched teeth or unusual placement of the tongue in the mouth. Because the tension is constant, it’s likely that you won’t notice how it’s affecting your mouth, but it could be doing damage to the structure of your teeth. If you’re experiencing tension in your jaw it’s likely you’ll need help to prevent this damage.

(01/20/2022)
by Dental Care Professionals

More Information: https://www.dentalcareprofessionals.com.au/allergies-and-tooth-pain/

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