Painful tooth

[Pauly854]

I have question. My son and I went diving yesterday. We did the first dive, all was fine, then went in for a second. As we were descending, at about 15', my son looked like he was having trouble equalizing. We came up a few feet, and tried again, but no luck. So we surfaced, and he said it was his tooth! I have heard of a squeeze in a tooth when surfacing, from air under a filling or a defect in the tooth (he has neither)...but this was during descent. It felt better at the surface, so we tried again with same results, though it continued to hurt for a few hours after the second try. So we just scrubbed the second dive. Have you ever heard of this? I mentioned it to a few people there, and none had heard of it before. Love to hear any ideas.

 

[nikos81]

The most obvious opinion is having your son taken to a dentist. Even though a tooth may seem good,it may be defected on the back where it cannot be seen. I had a problem on a tooth of mine before started diving, when I descented in a pool to get an object which was on the bottom.That was the first and the only time I experienced pain in my tooth.I went to see a doctor and then it was ok. I started diving last year and never had any problems,no matter what the depth is. the bottom line is, visit the dentist.

 

[Kilili]

Only a problem with the tooth...

 

[elmer fudd]

This is most likely a sinus problem. The nerves in your upper rear teeth extend clear up to your sinuses and if your sinuses are clogged or infected it can press on the nerves causing severe pain. I've had first hand experience with this and it can be excruciating. When it's at it's worst there is no way I would consider diving.

When you vary depth and your sinuses come under pressure it can cause the pain to flare up. Generally, if this occurs I find I have some sinus symptoms as well, but not a full fledged congested head cold. Post nasal drip, trouble clearing your ears, spitting up snotty blood when you surface, that kind of thing.

 

[Pauly854]

He denies any sort of sinus symptoms, and says he had no trouble equalizing. But it IS an upper, rear tooth. Hopefully it is a sinus issue, but dentist next week, just to be sure. Thanks for the input everyone.

 

[TSandM]

My vote is for a reverse block in the maxillary sinus. You can often easily clear your ears, even when the opening to the sinus may be blocked. As already stated, the bottom of the maxillary sinus is just above the maxillary molars, so the pain may be interpreted as tooth pain.

 

[elmer fudd]

He denies any sort of sinus symptoms, and says he had no trouble equalizing. But it IS an upper, rear tooth. Hopefully it is a sinus issue, but dentist next week, just to be sure. Thanks for the input everyone.

I didn't notice symptoms myself until I started looking for them.

When this first happened I hadn't started diving yet. I developed an excruciating toothache and I went to the dentist. To my surprise, he told me I had a perfectly healthy tooth and that my problem was likely due to an infected sinus and, honestly, I didn't really believe him. My sinuses felt fine. It was that darn tooth that was killing me, but within about a week, (a very hellish week), the pain had gone away. A few years later it came back, but this time I medicated myself with Sudafed and antihistamine and the problem wasn't nearly as bad. When I paid attention, I did notice sinus symptoms. They were quite minor, but still noticeable.

I noticed it once diving too and immediately recognized it for what it was.

In my experience the pain resulting from this can range from a mild inconvenience to terrible.

 

[damnhor2]

I would have a dentist take a look, just in case...

 

[ScubaMarc]

Try this to diagnose, lean over touch your toes and see if a heavy feeling appears under the eyes. This is how i know it is sinus and not teeth.

FYI: my toothache(sinus) is killing me today from a dive on Saturday. I did not take my normal sudafed the night before.

 

[Stu S.]

I had the same poblem as your son. A newly-filled tooth started hurting badly on the way down. I had never had that problem before. After about a minute of hanging at 55 feet the pain went away. No pain was felt on the way back up.

After a couple of those dives, I went to the dentist and he re-drilled it and filled it. Diving back down into the spring, it only hurt about a third as much. The following dive there was no pain and none since.