COVID & Dental Pain

Imagine having an unnecessary dental procedure because your tooth pain is due to COVID, and not the usual reasons for seeing a dentist! While most COVID symptoms are well known—sore throat, fever, cough, respiratory issues—and various symptoms came to light, such as sore joints and body aches, loss of smell/taste, and headaches, yet a new one has surfaced. A study published in Cureus pondered if tooth pain should be added to the COVID symptom list. Researchers noticed tooth pain not caused by usual culprits such as infection, inflammation, or decay. Can we blame COVID?

Although only 2 occurrences are noted in the article, the authors want “to spare the patient from having unnecessary dental treatments” and recommend further investigation. The study concluded, “tooth pain might be listed as an early symptom of Covid-19 infection and could lead to the diagnosis of Covid-19, based on clinical signs and as a part of neurological disorder, notably in absence of local affections… These previously mentioned cases may pose the hypothesis of Covid-19 causing neuropathic pain manifested by toothache. …it might show the dental impact of Covid-19 infection and guide the dental practitioner to spare the patient... Therefore, further investigations should be done on a larger group of patients who experienced similar dental symptoms during their Covid-19 infection.”

 

Read the journal article.

Other Categories:

• COVID/coronavirus

• inflammation

• research/study