People seeking care for non-traumatic dental health conditions account for approximately 1% (12,300) of emergency room visits in British Columbia.
Knowing the signs of a tooth cavity can help you decide whether or not you need to visit a dentist. Especially before it becomes an emergency.
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4 Signs You Might Have a Tooth Cavity
Sign #1 – You Can See It
Often, there are visible signs you have a cavity.* For example:
- Incipient cavities (those so early in their development that they can be reversed via remineralization) present as chalky white or yellowish spots on the surface of the tooth. You can further identify cavities by wetting discolored spots with saliva; if the discoloration vanishes when wet, it is a sure sign you have a cavity.
- As cavities bore through the tooth enamel to expose the dentin, dark spots ranging in color from brown to black may become apparent on tooth surfaces.
- Large and advanced tooth cavities may create holes and craters in the tooth that are visible during self-examination. That said, there are other potential causes of visibly pitted/cratered teeth (called “tooth cupping”), making your search for a “dentist near me” essential to understanding and treating visible deformities in your teeth.
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*Cavities can form between teeth, below the gum line, or where the natural architecture of the mouth hides from plain sight. In these cases, a professional dentist in Vancouver can diagnose a cavity via dental examination and x-rays.
Sign #2 – You Can Smell It
Even if a cavity is not visible during an at-home examination, it may contribute to — though not directly cause — oral malodor (a.k.a “halitosis” or “bad breath”).
Nevertheless, any qualified dentist in Vancouver will note that there is a strong correlation between halitosis and tooth cavities; as many as 90% of cases of oral malodor are caused by oral health and hygiene conditions related to cavities. There are three main reasons for this:
- Cavities can only develop in conditions that also contribute to bad breath
- Exposed dental pulp and roots can develop a foul-smelling infection secondary to the cavity, and
- Food debris and malodorous plaque can get trapped in various recesses.
Sign #3 – You Can Feel It
Tooth pain and sensitivity are the most recognizable signs of a tooth cavity. Sensitivity often precedes pain, with both becoming more severe and frequent as the cavity progresses deeper into the tooth.
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Before a cavity advances to the point of causing either sensitivity or pain, however, the enamel erosion and demineralization that characterize an incipient cavity often cause noticeable roughness on the teeth. For the best possible outcome, you should begin your search for a “dentist near me” as soon as you notice any textural changes to the surface of your teeth.
Loose Fillings & Crowns
All dental restorations can create hard-to-clean spaces where cavity-causing bacteria thrive. Loose fillings and crowns are perfect locations for plaque buildup. That is why recurrent cavities (where a cavity develops beneath a previous cavity-caused restoration) are one of the most common types of cavities adults get.
Consequently, if you can feel a crown or filling becoming loose, it can either signal that you are at risk for cavity development or that tooth decay is already changing the shape of the tooth under/around it.
Sign #4 – You Develop Complementary Oral Health Conditions
Tooth decay is a bacterial process. Bacteria in the mouth feed on sugars from our food, then produce a biofilm waste (a.k.a “plaque”). Accumulated plaque wears down tooth enamel and enables a cavity to form.
Yet the health conditions and lifestyle/hygiene habits that allow cavity-causing bacteria to thrive can also cause other oral health conditions. That makes complementary (or common comorbid) dental conditions an important potential sign you have a cavity.
Concurrent Gum Disease
Tooth cavities and gum disease are both commonly caused by the same oral hygiene and lifestyle habits. As a result, it is not uncommon for people to develop both simultaneously. For patrons of any dental clinic in Vancouver, scheduling a dental visit to address symptoms of one of these conditions (like the bleeding and swollen gums indicative of gum disease) often leads to the discovery that they have both.
