Does Your Child Have Tooth Pain When Chewing Food?

Your child might refuse to eat carrot sticks, almonds and pretzels, but is it for the reason you think? Rather than disliking the taste of these foods, your child might be suffering from chewing issues that make biting hard food painful. Uncover the dental-related causes of chewing issues and learn how to help your child enjoy eating again!

Baby Teeth

Your infant will get teeth one-by-one until they have all 20 baby teeth as a child. Then, those teeth should stay with them for several years until they start to fall out around age 7 or 8. This is also a time when the permanent teeth come in. During all those young years of dental development, your child shouldn’t get loose teeth earlier than normal. Loose teeth too early can cause tooth pain. They also shouldn’t have tooth pain when they chew.

You can pick up on many dental problems by the way your child eats and behaves. Do you notice them favoring only one side when they eat? Do they hold one side of their face or complain of tooth pain? Tooth pain is not a common side effect of growing older in children. However, it is a sign of a tooth problem, such as tooth decay. When your child tells you they have tooth pain, or if you start to notice subtle actions, such as avoiding eating on one side of their mouth, have them come into the office.

When Children Get Tooth Pain

Most children will let a parent know if they have tooth pain. Toothaches can cause a lot of pain in the baby teeth just like they can in the adult teeth. However, if a child has a toothache with no visible swelling and irritation around the tooth, it could be something internal. This is likely a culprit of internal tooth decay, or a cavity that has developed in the soft center of the tooth. Often, patients young and old will get tooth pain (sometimes severe) when tooth decay has caused an infection that is swelling and spreading. Infections cause inflammation in the area as your body’s natural response to try to protect damaged tissues. However, this can create pressure on the inside of a tooth.

If your child has tooth pain, call the dentist and schedule an appointment. Only a dentist can determine the cause of tooth pain, and only a dentist can treat it if the tooth pain lasts days at a time. If the problem is tooth decay, the tooth pain will likely get worse over time. Even if your child seems fine at the time, still call the dental office if they mention that their tooth is sensitive or if it hurts a bit. The problem could also be uneven pressure on a child’s teeth that stems from crooked teeth. We can help determine if your child needs early orthodontics to fix their pain.

What Causes Your Child Pain?

Just like in adults, children might notice that a tooth seems more sensitive. One day it might start to hurt and, within a matter of hours or days, it might start to really hurt. A dentist can determine if there is tooth decay and infection and can correct it. The decay is usually more severe if it is causing a child pain.

If your child only has tooth pain when chewing, it could also signal that they have a cracked tooth. Cracked teeth can become dental emergencies depending on the location of the crack and when it happened. Infections usually happen after a tooth cracks, so if a child is certain they broke or cracked their tooth from food or play, they need to see a dentist right away. Cracked teeth usually only give a person pain when the tooth is chewed on. A chipped filling can have the same effect as well. You can use a light to examine a child’s teeth to see if there is a crack. However, many cracks are below the gum line and can only be detected by a dental professional in an x-ray.

What to Do

As we mentioned, call the dental office. However, problems such as toothaches and dental emergencies always seem to happen on the weekend or after hours when the dental office is closed. What can you do then? Follow these tips for helping your child with tooth pain:

• Make a cold compress. You can use a cold pack from your fridge or buy child-friendly cold packs from the store. Some of these have gel beads inside that get cold, but not unbearable. Have your child hold the cold pack on the outside of their cheek where their tooth hurts or wrap a sock or nylon in a safe position to hold an ice pack for them. Ice will help reduce swelling, pain and inflammation.
• Use child Tylenol or other form of child pain reliever until they can see a dentist.
• Have your child swish with a warm salt-water rinse several times a day. This can help soothe swollen gums around a hurt tooth.
• Be very careful with brushing in the area and make sure that there is no stuck food in the child’s gums. Stuck food could cause them pain.
• Some professionals recommend using clove oil as a natural analgesic for children. You can use a cotton swab to place some clove oil around the hurt tooth on the gums.

Children commonly get oral health problems such as tooth decay because of high amounts of sugar and not enough brushing. Eating foods that are too hard or chewing on non-food items (such as pencils) can break or chip a tooth. If the problem isn’t tooth decay, chewing on something too hard or a sports or play accident is most likely the reason for the tooth pain. Only a dentist can determine the exact cause and a course of action for healing. If your child has tooth pain, don’t hesitate! Call Stonebrook Family Dental today at (303) 872-7907!