Can wisdom teeth cause headaches?

Everyone gets wisdom teeth at some point. However, we all don’t go through the same experience.

Wisdom teeth are the last set of teeth to grow in your young adulthood phase. In most cases, the process is quite troublesome, as some people experience both pain and discomfort.

These teeth come out between the ages of 17 and 25, and at this stage, you may not have sufficient space to fit them as they grow. The person ends up getting impacted wisdom teeth, which become responsible for the irritation to other teeth and surrounding gums. But, can it cause other side effects? Can wisdom teeth cause headaches?

Signs and symptoms of emerging wisdom teeth

Besides the discomfort, there are other signs and symptoms that an individual experiences when there are wisdom teeth coming in. Some of them include:

In extreme cases, the patient might experience other symptoms which are not usually associated with impacted wisdom teeth. There have been several cases of infections occurring, leading to intense pain, wisdom teeth swelling, fever, etc.

Signs of impacted wisdom teeth

Besides causing pain and damage to other teeth, impacted wisdom teeth can also be the source of other dental problems, such as overcrowding and impaction into the gum or neighboring teeth.

You don’t have to wait to suffer immense pain before you seek medical help. It is important to know the warning signs to look out for in case you experience a troublesome wisdom tooth at some point.

Here are some of the main symptoms to look out for that could signal it is time to have your dentist remove them:

Persistent Pain

The most noticeable sign that you may need to get your wisdom teeth checked and removed at a dental clinic is the pain and irritation. The discomfort can be felt where the tooth is erupting and also whenever you try to open your mouth or eat.

Wisdom teeth are the last to emerge in your mouth, making them easy to become impacted. As they emerge, there might not be sufficient room in the jaw or mouth for them. Instead of coming out straight, they become tilted or misaligned. They can also come out sideways, pressing up against other teeth.

At times, an impacted wisdom tooth might be painless, and you may not even realize it. However, when it tries to erupt, it forces the overlying gum to swell, causing pain that’s felt on nearby teeth.

In most cases, such pain might only last a couple of days before it disappears, reappearing again after a while ‒ and the cycle continues. Typically, the pain increases the longer you leave it untreated.

Stiff Jaw

As the wisdom teeth emerge, they push against other teeth, making them shift position. This process causes a lot of discomfort and makes the jaw feel sore and stiff. In turn, this causes swelling on the side of the jaw and also on the gums.

Cavities

Impacted wisdom teeth can also be the root cause of cavities and tooth decay. As they push the neighboring teeth from their original state, there are gaps and spaces between the teeth that can be left behind.

It is a no-brainer that there are certain areas of our mouths that we might not be able to clean while brushing. As a result, these gaps will potentially collect food particles, leading to a bacteria build-up that can cause cavities.

A partially erupted wisdom tooth can lead to infections, such as Pericoronitis. This disease is caused by the swelling of gum tissues, wherein gum tissues from food or plaque become trapped in the gaps between the gum and the impacted tooth. In severe cases, if left untreated, this infection can spread to the throat.

Eating Difficulties

The misalignments resulting from wisdom teeth can make it difficult to open and close your mouth, bringing forth challenges when eating. Chewing or biting becomes more painful the more it is left untreated.

Red/Swollen Gums

Partially erupted wisdom teeth can also be the cause of red or swollen gums. The patient might be exposed to other gum diseases with signs like:

Sinus Issues

The growth of wisdom teeth and the development of their roots can push against the sinuses close by. Thereafter, you start to feel sinus pain, congestion, and pressure, more so in the upper jaw. Due to this pressure, you’ll begin to feel a headache from wisdom teeth.

So, the answer to our first question ‘do wisdom teeth cause headaches’: yes, they do. Continue reading to find out some of the best ways to relieve tooth pain.

How to stop the headache from wisdom teeth?

If you experience any pain or a wisdom teeth headache as a result of wisdom teeth, there are a few remedies that you can use to lessen the impacts. Some of them include:

Rinsing with warm salt water

There has been a lot of research backing the efficiency of warm salt water rinses as a remedy for the pain caused by erupting or emerging teeth. According to the experts, rinsing with warm water and sodium chloride (the scientific name for salt) can promote healthy gums while killing bacteria.

As wisdom teeth erupt, they push other teeth leaving behind a gap where bacteria thrives. When you rinse your mouth with a salt water mixture, you get rid of the bacteria, hence, avoiding further damage to your gums and oral health in general.

Taking medicine

Whenever you start to experience any discomfort resulting from the surgery, like pain from wisdom teeth and headaches, you can always lessen it by taking certain medicines. One good example is Aspirin, a tried remedy for headaches, even those caused by wisdom teeth. Be sure to stick to the recommended dosage.

Apply thermotherapy

Thermotherapy is the use of heat, hot or cold, to alter the core temperatures of soft tissues to improve the symptoms of certain conditions, including headaches.

Even though this might not be a permanent solution to the pain, applying hot or cold therapy helps in unique ways:

Oral surgery for impacted wisdom teeth

If the symptoms from an impacted wisdom tooth persist, having them removed is the most effective method to relieve you of the pain. A dental surgeon performs the surgery and usually gives you permanent wisdom teeth headache relief.

Rather than waiting to experience unnecessary pain, tooth decay, and cavities on your wisdom teeth, you can have them removed by a qualified dentist.

However, this won’t be a straightforward process, as the decision to remove them solely lies on your dentist, who’ll first have to go through X-rays of your mouth and jaw. Based on their findings, they can recommend to have the impacted wisdom teeth removed to avoid any imminent problems or when they are at risk of decay.

Nevertheless, wisdom teeth extraction helps alleviate discomfort and prevents your body from developing an abnormal bite pattern.

After the surgery, your dentist will take you through several after-care things that you need to do, including being introduced to the right foods to eat after wisdom teeth removal. Besides, they usually recommend some aftercare tips if the extraction of the wisdom teeth cause headaches, or you feel persistent pain afterwards.

The discomfort associated with the emergence of wisdom teeth is a process we must all go through. However, it would be prudent to note that not all wisdom teeth emerge well, as there might not be enough room for them in some individuals.

You now know all the key symptoms to watch out for in case you have an impacted wisdom tooth and that wisdom teeth causing headaches is normal that . You can always try out the home remedies to ease the pain, but should it persist, you’ll need to book an appointment with your dentist to have them extracted.