Diet taboos for toothache

Foods that are too cold/overheated, high in sugar/high acidity, and hard foods that require effort to chew should be avoided first. Spicy, stimulating, and crude fiber foods can be adjusted as needed according to the cause of the toothache. Do not believe in the folk remedies of "biting ginger with white wine", as it will most likely make the pain worse.

Last week I treated a junior girl who suffered from pulpitis and was in so much pain that she couldn't sleep all night. I heard that ice can relieve pain, so I drank half a bottle of ice Coke. However, within ten minutes, she was in so much pain that she squatted on the floor of the dormitory and cried. Her roommate helped her. Here is a saying that everyone has been arguing about for a long time: "Toothache containing ice water can relieve pain." This is actually not completely wrong. It is only for patients in the suppurative stage of pulpitis - at this stage, the pus in the pulp cavity will expand when heated and squeeze the nerves. Cold stimulation can temporarily shrink the tissue and reduce the pressure, which is really painful. When you can't go to the hospital, you can occasionally take two mouthfuls of water as an emergency, but this is completely a "delay measure." When you recover, you will have to do a root canal as soon as possible. And for patients with dentin sensitivity, dental caries, and pericoronitis, ice water is a "critical hit". One mouthful can keep you awake for a long time. In the same way, don’t bring freshly made hot soup or freshly grilled skewers to the side of the pain. Temperature stimulation to the exposed tooth nerve is like directly spreading salt on the wound.

More hidden than temperature stimulation is the "soft damage" of high-sugar and high-acid foods. I often meet parents who ask if their children, who have tooth decay and pain, can take a candy to comfort them. Never. There was a 5-year-old child who had a big cavity in his front tooth and was in pain for two days. His grandma was distressed and secretly ate an orange gummy candy. The sugar residue got stuck in the cavity. That night, he was rolling in pain and his upper lip was swollen. Sugar will be quickly decomposed by the cariogenic bacteria in the cavity to produce acid, which directly corrodes the exposed dentinal tubules. Acidic things such as lemons and carbonated drinks are even worse, directly stimulating nerve endings, and the pain is a sharp and heart-piercing pain. Some elders say that "containing vinegar kills toothworms and relieves toothache", which is even more nonsense. The pH value of vinegar is far lower than the critical demineralization value of tooth enamel. It can corrode the surface enamel and soften it for ten minutes, making the subsequent pain even worse.

There are also some people who can't help but chew on the painful side when they have a toothache, especially hard ones. They call it "grinding it and it won't hurt anymore", but they are just looking for trouble for themselves. Last month, there was a young man who suffered from chronic periapical periodontitis, which was just a dull pain. He ate half a plate of salt and pepper walnuts at a friend's party, and the periapical area became swollen that night. Half of his face was swollen as if he had a quail egg in his mouth. When he came, he couldn't even open his mouth. He had to do incision and drainage before he recovered. Hard objects will either bite loose teeth or add pressure to the already inflamed periapical area. Some people say that biting Sichuan peppercorns can relieve pain. The numbing smell of Sichuan peppercorns can indeed temporarily paralyze local nerves. However, if you have a cavity and the crushed Sichuan peppercorns are stuck in and cannot be removed, the subsequent pain will be worse than before. There is no need to take this risk.

As for the dishes that everyone often says cannot eat spicy food and cannot eat crude fiber, in fact, there is no need to cut them all. If you have pericoronitis, gum abscess, or acute periapical inflammation, which is red, swollen, and painful, and then eat spicy food such as red oil hot pot or barbecue, the local blood circulation will accelerate, the inflammation will spread faster, and the swelling will become more severe. In this case, you must avoid eating it. But if you just have simple tooth sensitivity, it only hurts when you drink something cold, and your gums are not swollen at all. It’s perfectly fine to eat some mildly spicy home-cooked food, and you don’t have to make yourself unable to eat anything.

The same goes for celery and leeks with thick fiber. If you have large gaps between teeth and deep cavities, it will definitely hurt if you put these vegetables in and cannot take them out, so just avoid them for the time being.； If you are just a little sensitive due to worn enamel and don’t have any clogging problem, eating some vegetables with coarse fiber can rub and clean the tooth surface, so there is no harm in it.

When I suffered from pericoronitis on my wisdom teeth last year, I basically ate warm millet porridge, steamed eggs, and soft noodles. I chewed them on the side that didn't hurt. I rinsed two mouthfuls with warm salt water immediately after eating to rinse away the food residue, which basically didn't irritate the painful area. Finally, one more thing, dietary taboos can only help you reduce the pain, but cannot cure the problem. If the toothache lasts for more than 2 days, don’t bear it, go to the dentist as soon as possible, and make up what needs to be done, and pull out what needs to be done, otherwise you will be the one who suffers in the end.