Teeth Pain - How I Desensitized My Aching Teeth

Do you suffer from sensitive teeth? For years I thought it was just the norm to always cringe when taking a sip of cold ice tea or gasp at the shock of hot chocolate or hot coffee. There were even times when something sweet, like a chocolate or Snickers bar, would trigger an unpleasant tooth sensation. I don't know about you, but when it comes to teeth, I like them to just do their job of chomping on stuff. They don't need to be letting me know that they're there all the time. A quiet tooth is a happy tooth, thank you very much.

Of course I ran this all past my dentist and oral hygienist, and after looking for all the "scary" tooth things (broken tooth, exposed roots, etc) I pretty much was diagnosed me with just having the occasional sensitive tooth.

So, a couple of years ago I began to develop some different strategies for chipping away at my tooth sensitivity. And although there are still moments when a Snickers bar will catch me by surprise, I'd have to say that following these steps has led to some very welcome relief.

Tip #1 - Sensodyne is your friend

My first step - I totally switched to Sensodyne toothpaste. No, I don't get any kick backs for saying that. It's just that it worked for me. I threw away the extra whitening and gingivitis stuff and started solely using Sensodyne toothpaste. There are other brands out there with the same antihypersensitivity ingredient, Potassium Nitrate, so give them a try too if you're so inclined.

I've also been trying the new Sensodyne iso-active foaming gel. It comes in a metal bottle that reminds me of a soap pump dispenser. Here's the description on the side: "New Sensodyne transforms into microfine foam during brushing, penetrating hard to reach areas to thoroughly clean the whole mouth and sooth the nerve."

The active ingredients of the foaming gel: Potassium nitrate (5%) for Antihypersensitivity, Sodium fluoride (0.15%) for Anticavity. Just like the regular tube version, this one seems to be doing a pretty good job of keeping the sensitivity down.

Tip #2 - Brush your teeth before going to bed

Here's the one caveat to brushing before bed: don't rinse your mouth out. Spit out as much as possible and then hit the sack. This step was one of the biggest changes for me when it came to finding some relief. If the toothpaste taste was too strong, I'd spit out what I could, then rinse just my tongue. Apparently by sleeping with just a little bit of the Sensodyne on my teeth, it began to soak in during the night.

Tip #3 - Soak your teeth in Fluoride!

I got this idea one day while visiting the dentist. They had given me this "tray" of liquid fluoride that I was supposed to "rest" my teeth in for a minute or two. The idea was that the exterior fluoride would soak into the teeth and strengthen them. It was also supposed to give me a side effect of diminishing tooth sensitivity. And it did. So, I went searching through the stores. Surely there would be something that I could use to approximate this procedure. Phos-Flur (Phosflur), by Colgate is billed as, "Sodium Fluoride and Acidulated Phospate Topical Solution". (Now that's certainly a mouthful!) With a sodium fluoride percentage of 4.4 mg per 10 mL of fluid, it worked great. If my teeth were giving me a hard time, I'd pour some fluoride liquid into a small cup and then keep it in my mouth as long as possible. To keep your mind off the taste, try watching TV, catching up on mail or maybe even taking time to read my story about a guy who yelled at me about "singing to my cup". It's amazing when you distract yourself from the thought of, "Oh, man. I've got fluoride in my mouth." that you can maintain a long exposure time. Relief using this method worked so well, that I've only used one bottle of the Fluoride liquid.

Relief in stages

It hasn't always come at once, but by consistently applying these kinds of self-treatments, I've been able to gain some relief in the tooth sensitivity department. So, keep seeing your dentist. Happy de-sensitizing. And if you happen to have an extra Snickers bar, you know where to send it! :)