“Dry Socket” is the name for a painful inflammatory process involving the bone of a tooth socket, usually three to four days after a tooth extraction. The technical name for such a condition is Acute Alveolar Osteitis. The word acute means painful, the word alveolar refers to the spongy bone surrounding the tooth root, and the word osteitis means “bone [...]

WHY ARE MY TEETH SENSITIVE? A Brief Explanation of Root Sensitivity Have you ever had that nagging sensitivity in your teeth when you brush, drink cold liquids, eat sweets, or just breathe air into your mouth? Don’t panic, it’s probably not a cavity. Cavities are usually the assumption people make but the sensitivity is usually the [...]

I get this question sometimes when a patient has a toothache and my diagnosis for their ache is a dead nerve. We refer to a dead nerve as a “necrotic pulp” or a “pulpless tooth.” It’s a logical question, as the assumption is that tooth pain must come from the nerve within the tooth. It's possible to [...]

There are many causes for teeth and/or their surrounding structures to become painful or develop “sensitivity.” Tooth pain comes from two potential sources: the dental pulp (nerve) and/or the surrounding periodontal tissues (bone and gums). Pulpal pain The network of nerves and blood vessels inside a tooth is called the dental “pulp.” When the pulp [...]