Nothing is worse than getting into bed at night with toothache. Regardless of whether this pain is a dull throbbing or an intense sharp pain, it can prove difficult to get some sleep. This won’t just interfere with your day-to- day life but could be causing further problems with your dental hygiene, which is why identifying the cause of your toothache is important.

Symptoms of toothache at night include waves of or constant pain in an area of your mouth, be it a tooth or the surrounding tissue. You may also notice a foul smell or taste and may develop increased sensitivity to cold or hot food, or sugar.

The Reasons Why Toothache is More Severe at Night

If you find your toothache worsening at night, this could be due to a number of reasons. Firstly, it may not have got worse but you might just be noticing it more now because you’re not focusing on other things, such as work or studying. Now you’ve got into bed you may be increasingly aware of the pain, which can make it feel worse than it has during the day.

Stress or tension throughout the day can also lead to toothache at night as you may have been unknowingly clenching your teeth. Doing this throughout the day can cause aches at night due to misalignment and overexertion. Equally, if you’ve just eaten a meal that is overly sugary, acidic, starchy, hot or cold, this could have aggravated an underlying problem that you already have.

Depending how you sleep, you may find that more blood rushes to your head when you lie down, which can pronounce your toothache. This can also be caused by increased pressure in your sinuses.

Common Causes of Nighttime Toothache

If you do find that you have one-off or persistent nighttime toothache, you should seek the advice of your dentist immediately. Or, if you are experiencing excruciating pain during the night, you should contact an emergency dentist in your local area, immediately.

The causes of this toothache could stem from a variety of different conditions, including cavities. This is one of the most common causes of tooth decay, with erosion to the outer layers of the tooth causing increased sensitivity to the inside of your tooth, which leads to toothache. It may also be due to bacteria in the root of your tooth, which has been caused by an oral injury or tooth decay. When an infection reaches this area it can cause severe pain and should be treated straight away. 

Alternatively, toothache can also be caused as a result of oral trauma where your tooth has become fractured or chipped due to a blow to the face. When you lie down at night, this can make the pain more uncomfortable due to the change in your body’s position and the blood flow to your head, making these small cracks more of an issue at night than during the day.

No matter what intensity your toothache is and whether it comes and goes or occurs every night, professional medical advice should be sought to ensure the problem is treated to prevent any ongoing problems with your teeth.