Time for a night’s sleep, but one thing is really starting to heat up: the aching tooth. Why toothache often increases at night – and which home remedy an expert advises against.
Sleep would be nice now. But a tooth puts a damper on your restful night’s sleep – it throbs and pulls harder than it did during the day. This is “not my imagination,” as dentist Jochen Schmidt from Carree Dental in Cologne says. According to the doctor, toothache often becomes more intense at night.
According to Schmidt, there are several explanations as to why nighttime toothaches often particularly bother us:
- The pain can seem nastier than during the day, “because we are not distracted by anything and concentrate more on it,” says Schmidt.
- Because it is so cozy and warm in bed, the inflamed tissue expands. This can also make the symptoms worse.
- The lying position puts more pressure on our network of nerves and blood vessels around the mouth, which can also contribute to toothache.
- Our bodies also produce less cortisol in the evening. This is a hormone that has a pain-relieving effect.
Bridge the waiting time with painkillers and cold
So what do you do when a tooth gnaws and keeps you from sleeping? The first to-do for the next morning is set: make an appointment with the dentist if you haven’t already done so. After all, toothache shows that something is wrong in the mouth – for example due to tooth decay, root inflammation or periodontitis.
And how do you bridge the time until the appointment? Cold can be beneficial, for example in the form of an ice cube to suck on or as a cold pack that is wrapped in a cloth and placed on the cheek.
Painkillers such as ibuprofen and paracetamol also relieve the symptoms. According to Schmidt, you should do this for a maximum of three days because they can have side effects.
Schmidt: Cloves can cause problems
What should also help: Chewing on a clove. An essential oil contained in it – eugenol – is considered to be pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory. However, Jochen Schmidt advises against this home remedy for toothache. Colleagues and himself have had to remove carnation residue from gaps “several times”. This made the cause of the symptoms worse.
However: The disadvantages relate to chewing whole cloves. If you want to use the effects of eugenol to relieve your pain, you can use clove oil instead. Then nothing gets stuck between the teeth. What is important, however, is that eugenol is primarily aimed at numbing the pain. In order to eliminate the cause of the pain, such as tooth decay, you should visit the dentist as soon as possible.
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