Inflammation of teeth
Tooth inflammation can affect the pulp inside a tooth or the tissues around its root, often because of decay, a crack, trauma, or bacterial infection.
What can inflame a tooth or the tissues around its root?
Tooth inflammation can affect the pulp inside a tooth or the tissues around its root, often because of decay, a crack, trauma, or bacterial infection.
How can inflammation spread from the pulp around a tooth?
The pulp contains nerves and blood vessels; inflammation can progress through the root tip into the periodontal ligament and surrounding bone.
How is the cause of tooth inflammation diagnosed and treated?
A dentist uses sensitivity, bite, percussion, gum, and imaging tests, then treats the cause with a filling, root canal treatment, or extraction when restoration is impossible.
Which tooth inflammation symptoms need urgent attention?
Seek care for lingering thermal pain, spontaneous throbbing, biting pain, swelling, or a gum boil; fever or facial swelling needs urgent attention.
Is the pulp inflamed, and can the tooth still be restored?
Ask whether the pulp or root tissues are inflamed, what the tests show, and whether the tooth can be restored.
Frequently asked questions
What is the main practical point?
Tooth inflammation can affect the pulp inside a tooth or the tissues around its root, often because of decay, a crack, trauma, or bacterial infection.
When should this be checked?
Seek care for lingering thermal pain, spontaneous throbbing, biting pain, swelling, or a gum boil; fever or facial swelling needs urgent attention.
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Who wrote this page
This library is published by Dental Nation, a licensed dental group practising in the United Arab Emirates. Pages are written and overseen by the same clinical team that treats patients in our clinics, and are held to a fixed editorial standard for safety and accuracy.
This page is patient education, not medical advice, and cannot replace an examination. Anything urgent — facial swelling, trauma, uncontrolled bleeding or severe pain — needs a dentist or emergency care now.