Toothache Relief in Canberra City

Toothache is the most common reason people ring us for an urgent appointment. Call (02) 6247 9230 and we will book you the earliest time we have. We are open Monday to Thursday, 8:30am to 5pm, and we try to keep room for urgent problems on those days, though we cannot promise an appointment on the day you call. Ring early, and if we cannot fit you in we will tell you and point you to the alternatives below.

While you are waiting to be seen, the steps below will help you stay as comfortable as possible.

First aid for a toothache

• Call us on (02) 6247 9230 for the next available appointment, and tell us how long the pain has been there and what makes it worse
• Rinse your mouth with warm water to clear any food or debris from around the tooth. A salt-water gargle may relieve a mild toothache — do not swallow it
• If there is swelling, use a cold compress — an ice pack wrapped in a cloth, held against the outside of your cheek. Never apply heat to a swelling, as heat draws infection towards the skin
• Rest with your head propped up on a pillow. Lying flat often makes dental pain feel worse
• For pain relief, ask your pharmacist or doctor. Paracetamol or ibuprofen are the usual options, and you should always follow the instructions on the packet. Avoid high doses of aspirin, as aspirin thins the blood and can increase bleeding, and do not give aspirin to a child under 12 unless a doctor has told you to
• Never place an aspirin tablet against the gum or tooth. It burns the soft tissue and leaves you with an ulcer as well as a toothache
• Stick to soft food and avoid very hot and very cold drinks
• Keep brushing with a soft toothbrush and fluoride toothpaste, even around the sore tooth

These measures are drawn from healthdirect’s advice on toothache and gum swelling. They are there to make the wait bearable. None of them treat the cause, and a toothache that quietens down has not necessarily resolved.

When a toothache needs urgent attention

Ring us the same practice day, or seek medical care if we are closed, when the pain comes with any of the following:

• Swelling of the gum, cheek, jaw or under the chin
• A fever over 38°C, pus, or a persistent bad taste in your mouth
• Pain severe enough to keep you awake, or that does not settle with pain-relief medicine
• Pain that has lasted more than two days without improving
• Difficulty opening your mouth or swallowing

Healthdirect advises seeking emergency care — triple zero (000) or an emergency department — if a toothache or gum swelling causes problems with breathing or speaking, or swelling around your eye or neck. Those are signs the problem has moved beyond the tooth, and they need a hospital rather than a dental chair.

One further safety point worth knowing: healthdirect notes that pain from your heart can sometimes feel like a toothache. If tooth or jaw pain arrives with chest discomfort, breathlessness, sweating or nausea, treat it as a medical emergency and call 000.

What the pain may be telling you

Only an examination can establish what is actually going on, and often an X-ray is needed to see between or inside a tooth. That said, the pattern of your pain is genuinely useful information, so it is worth paying attention to before your appointment.

• A sharp twinge with cold that stops as soon as the cold is gone often points to exposed dentine — a worn area, gum recession, a small crack in a filling, or early decay. Frequently one of the more straightforward problems to deal with.
• Pain that lingers or throbs for minutes after something hot or cold suggests the nerve inside the tooth is inflamed. Root canal treatment or removing the tooth may be the options at that stage.
• Pain when you bite down on one particular tooth can indicate a crack, a filling sitting slightly too high, or inflammation of the ligament around the root.
• Constant severe pain, with the tooth tender to touch, swelling and a bad taste, is the pattern of a dental abscess and should be seen promptly.
• A dull ache at the back of the jaw, with a tender flap of gum and difficulty opening, is often an erupting or impacted wisdom tooth.
• An ache across several teeth, worse first thing in the morning, with tired jaw muscles, is more typical of grinding or clenching than of a problem in any one tooth.
• Pressure across the upper back teeth alongside a blocked nose is sometimes sinus-related rather than dental.
• Sensitivity for a few days after a new filling is common and usually settles. Tell us if it is getting worse rather than better.

What we will do

We will ask what the pain is like, what sets it off and how long it lasts, then examine the tooth, the neighbouring teeth and the gums, and take an X-ray where one is needed. Testing how a tooth responds to cold or to gentle pressure often tells us which tooth is responsible, which is not always the one that hurts most.

If you are in pain, making you comfortable comes first. After that you will get a plain explanation of what we found, the treatment options with their trade-offs, and an estimate of the cost before anything goes ahead. Depending on what is causing the pain, treatment may involve a filling, root canal therapy, a crown where a tooth is badly broken down, treating the gum, or removing the tooth.

What is worth knowing

Relieving the pain and finishing the treatment are not always the same appointment. It is common to settle an inflamed or infected tooth first and rebuild it properly once things have calmed down, and that is usually the better sequence rather than a delay.

Antibiotics are not a treatment for toothache on their own. Healthdirect notes they are usually not used unless there is a clear infection, and even then they manage the infection rather than fix the tooth. A nerve that has died will often stop hurting entirely while the underlying problem continues quietly, so pain disappearing is not proof that it has gone away.

Not every painful tooth can be saved. Where decay or a fracture extends too far below the gum, or too much of the supporting bone has been lost, removal may be the more sensible option, and we will set out the alternatives rather than deciding for you. Treatment also carries its own risks — discomfort for a few days afterwards, bruising, temporary numbness from local anaesthetic, and the possibility that a tooth treated with root canal therapy needs further work later.

If we are closed

We are closed on Fridays, weekends, public holidays and outside 8:30am to 5pm. You can call healthdirect on 1800 022 222 at any hour to speak to a registered nurse, and Canberra Health Services Walk-in Centres are open 7:30am to 10pm every day and can treat a minor dental abscess, although they cannot treat dental injuries. Concession card holders may be able to access public emergency dental care through Central Health Intake on (02) 5124 9977. Our emergency dental page sets out all of these options in full, along with the signs that mean you should go to an emergency department instead.

Call us on the next practice morning and we will follow up. Emergency care obtained elsewhere is usually a holding measure, and the tooth will still need to be properly assessed.