Page 13 - My FlipBook

CAUSES AND 11ELIEF OF DENTAL PAIN. 5

be seen to be bright red, whereas a healthy dental pulp

is of a very pale pink colour.
S// ui i>f nuts.— Pain, usually of a shooting character,
brought on by food pressing against the exposed surface
or by the application of heat or cold, and in its early

stages characteristically intermittent.
The pain is worse 'it night, when the patient lies down
and becomes warm in bed, increased congestion being

fchus produced; the pulp is squeezed against the hard,
unyielding walls of the pulp cavity.
The pain may or may not be referred by the patient
to the tooth really affected, a lower tooth being fre-
quently indicated by the patient as the one in fault when

the real source of pain is an upper one.
Referred dental pain, however, never crosses the

median line.
Examples of referred pain,—Earache is frequently due
to a carious molar tooth. Pain in the bicuspid or canine
region may also be due to a carious wisdom tooth on the
same side of the mouth.

Course,—If the acute inflammation of the pulp be
allowed to run its course untreated, the pulp usually
becomes strangulated at the apical foramen and its death

results ; death of the pulp, however, may not occur until
a second or third attack.
Treatment,—The first indication is the relief of pain,
and this may be accomplished by the same means as for

the pain due tt> irritation of the pulp, namely, the insertion
of a pellet of cotton-wool clipped in one of the following :
Oil of cloves, eugenol, creosote, oil of cinnamon, pure
carbolic acid, oil of peppermint, a warm saturated solu-

tion of carbonate of soda, or crystals of cocaine; carbo-
lised resin 1 is also useful for this purpose, and has the
1
See " Formula for Carbolised Resin" on p. :!.