What to Do If Your Tooth Hurts: Steps You Can Take Tonight

What to Do in the First Hour

• Take a painkiller you tolerate. Ibuprofen usually does more for tooth pain than paracetamol because the pain is mostly inflammation. If you can safely take both, they work better together than alone. Stick to the dose on the packet. Painkillers for a toothache goes through the options.
• Cold compress, outside the cheek. Wrap ice in a cloth and hold it over the sore tooth for 15 to 20 minutes at a time.
• Rinse gently. Half a teaspoon of salt in a glass of warm water, swished and spat out.
• Prop your head up. Lying flat sends more blood to your head and the throb gets louder.
• Stay off that side. Skip very hot, very cold and sugary things for now.

If the tooth is hurting at night in particular, why teeth hurt more at night explains why and what helps you sleep.

What Not to Do

• No heat on the face. If there is any swelling, warmth can help an infection spread.
• No aspirin on the gum. It burns the soft tissue and does nothing for the tooth. Painkillers work when swallowed.
• No leftover antibiotics. They will not clear an infection sealed inside a tooth, and they can quiet things down just enough that you stop looking for the cause.
• No poking at it. Most people test the tooth with their tongue every few minutes. It is a very human thing to do, and it does not help.

When to Be Seen the Same Day

Steady pain in someone who is otherwise well can usually hold until morning on painkillers. These cannot:

• Swelling in the cheek, jaw or gum, especially if it is growing
• Pain that painkillers barely touch, or that is clearly worse every hour
• A fever with the tooth pain
• A bad taste, or a pimple-like bump on the gum near the tooth

Those point to infection, and it needs treating, not waiting out. Toothache emergency signs lists them in more detail.

Do not come to us for swelling that is spreading toward your eye or down your neck, trouble breathing or swallowing, or a high fever with chills. Those are hospital emergency room problems. Emergency room or dentist for tooth pain explains where the line is.

If It Starts on a Friday Afternoon or on Shabbat

The clinic at Harav Kook 28/1 is open Sunday to Thursday 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM and Friday 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Shabbat is reserved for genuine emergencies only, and a tooth with swelling or fever counts. A tooth that simply aches can usually be held with the steps above until the clinic opens, but a Thursday-night ache is worth sorting out before the weekend has had time to make it worse.

Dr. Joel is US-trained and treats in English and Hebrew, so you can say exactly where it hurts, when, and what sets it off, without translating pain at midnight. Same-day appointments are possible, and our emergency dentist in Beit Shemesh page explains how a visit works.

What the Dentist Will Actually Do

Finding the cause is mostly a bite test, a cold test, a look at the gum and an x-ray. Then it depends on what is there:

• A cavity or cracked filling: often a filling, with no nerve treatment at all.
• An inflamed or dying nerve: usually root canal treatment in Beit Shemesh, which removes the source of the pain.
• An abscess: the infection has to be drained and the tooth treated. See tooth abscess.
• A tooth that cannot be saved: we say so plainly and talk through extraction.

Not every twinge needs an urgent chair. One sharp reaction to a cold drink that settled completely and has not come back can wait for a routine check. Pain that fades and returns is different, and tooth pain that comes and goes covers why.

If your tooth hurts and you are not sure how soon you need to be seen, call or WhatsApp Urgent Dental Care in Beit Shemesh on 055-985-8845. Tell us how it behaves and we will tell you whether it can wait. For more on the holding steps, see how to stop tooth pain until your appointment.

For independent guidance, the ADA's MouthHealthy has a page on what to do about a toothache, and the American Association of Endodontists lists the symptoms that point to an inflamed or infected nerve.