Definition – What is cervical inflammation?
A cervical inflammation describes the condition when the gums retract primarily on the outside of the teeth, making parts of the root of the tooth visible. This condition is accompanied by sensitivity to cold and pain, as the sensitive areas under the gums are now unprotected. The causes of these symptoms are multiple, making diagnosis difficult.
What are the causes of cervical inflammation?
The mechanism underlying cervical inflammation is caused by the exposed cervix, as it is commonly known. The gums normally lie against the crown of the tooth. As the gums recede upward beyond the enamel-cement interface, the cement or dentin is on the surface.
These substances do not have the same robust structure as the enamel. On the surface there are dentine tubules which immediately transmit stimuli of any kind to the dentin with the nerve and blood vessels. The stimuli that now reach the canals directly are normally attenuated by gum or enamel.
This is why the very pain-sensitive reactions to cold or heat occur, which are very unpleasant. There are various causes for this condition. The most common is brushing the teeth too forcefully.
Patients scrub too hard with their bristles on the side, so that the gums retract in response to this stimulus. For right-handed patients, the left side is usually affected, for left-handed patients the right side is affected, since brushing is easiest there. Another cause is gingivitis, which causes the gums to swell and pull up over the enamel-cement line.
The disease bruxism, the so-called grinding, which affects every second German today, is also a reason for the symptoms. Due to the excessive pressure and pressing, the thin tooth necks burst off and wedge-shaped tooth neck defects are formed. The dentine is exposed and gives the stimuli to the pulp unhindered and in full strength, which leads to pain.
Diagnosis
Diagnostically, the gums in the affected areas are reddened and are very sensitive when palpated. Due to the symptoms, brushing the teeth is hardly possible in these areas. The dentist checks the vitality of the teeth with a cold test.
In this test, cold spray is placed on a absorbent cotton carrier and held against the tooth. If the tooth is inflamed, the tooth reacts more strongly to the cold. For the patient it comes close to a painful pulling pain.
Nothing abnormal can be seen radiologically, which is why no X-ray is used for this diagnosis. If bruxism is the cause, wedge-shaped defects are present everywhere on the outside of the teeth and strong grinding facets are present on the occlusal surfaces. In the case of plaster defects, the symptoms are only visible on one side.
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