What are the characteristics of pain in acute pulpitis?

The pain symptoms of acute pulpitis are the most obvious, but they are different from other tenderness symptoms. Therefore, we can also distinguish them by these pain characteristics. Generally, the pain is in waves, and the location of the pain is not fixed.

1. Pain cannot be localized

When pulpitis pain occurs, the pain of acute pulpitis is characterized by often radiating along the distribution area of ​​the trigeminal nerve to the upper and lower teeth on the same side and the head and face. Patients cannot distinguish which tooth is diseased and often point to the wrong one. However, this radiating pain will not occur on the opposite side of the diseased tooth, but must occur on the same side of the diseased tooth.

2. Spontaneous paroxysmal severe pain

That is, there is no external stimulation and the teeth produce severe pain, and the pain is intermittent, with pain for a while and rest for a while. Generally, in the early stage of pulpitis, the pain attack duration is short and the interval time is long; in the late stage of pulpitis, the pain attack duration is long and the interval time is short, and the pain is often more severe at night than during the day.

3. Temperature stimulation can aggravate pain

Whether during an attack or an interval, cold or hot stimulation can cause pain or aggravate the pain. The pain characteristics of acute pulpitis include being more sensitive to cold stimuli in the early stages of pulpitis and sometimes being more sensitive to heat stimuli in the late stages. Pulpitis can be extremely painful when exposed to heat, but cold stimulation can relieve the pain. Therefore, patients often hold cold water in their mouths to relieve the pain.