Why does my tooth hurt after I bit down hard on something?

There are basically three possibilities for pain after biting down hard on something. One reason is your tooth may have developed a crack in it or had a pre-existing crack propagate.  When this happens the tooth can become sensitive to chewing afterwards. The crack opens and closes during chewing and causes pain. If the tooth actually cracks all the way through it can be either good or bad. If the piece that breaks off separates above the gum, the tooth is usually still restorable. If on the other hand if it breaks off below the gum or bone, it can cause problems for a dentist wishing to restore the tooth and sometimes a dentist will even recommend extraction.

If the crack is a vertical crack that invades the pulp chamber, then my patient may end up needing a root canal since pulps do not do well in this situation and usually need a root canal to solve the problem.

Another possible cause for pain that occurs after chewing on something hard is that a filling may have cracked.. A cracked filling may cause pain on chewing afterwards if part of the filling moves slightly when pressure is applied.

Sometimes after chewing on something hard no actual damage has been done to the tooth, but instead the ligaments holding the tooth can be injured. This can cause similar symptoms, since the ligaments have nerve fibers attached to them and can cause pain as well. The good news is that when this happens, the ligaments usually recover and the pain goes away. If I expect this possibility I ask my patient to refrain from chewing a lot on the side with the sore tooth and to call me in a couple of days to see if they feel better. If they have no improvement then there maybe reason to believe that further treatment is needed.

from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2018/03/why-does-my-tooth-hurt-after-i-bit-down.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/

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