Goodlettsville Dental Services

Barodontalgia

Barodontalgia, commonly known as tooth squeeze and previously known as aerodontalgia, is a pain in tooth caused by a change in atmospheric pressure. The pain usually ceases at ground level. The most common victims are SCUBA divers (because in deep dives pressures can increase by several atmospheres) and military pilots (because of rapid changes). In pilots, barodontalgia may be severe enough to cause premature cessation of flights.

Most of the available data regarding barodontalgia is derived from high-altitude chamber simulations rather than actual flights. Barodontalgia prevalence was between 0.7% and 2% in the 1940s, and 0.3% in the 1960s.

Similarly, cases of barodontalgia were reported in 0.3% of high altitude-chamber simulations in the Luftwaffe.

The rate of barodontalgia was about 1 case per 100 flight-years in the Israeli Air Force. During War World II, about one-tenth of American aircrews had one or more episodes of barodontalgia. In a recent study, 8.2% of 331 Israeli Air Force aircrews, reported at least one episode of barodontalgia.

Barodontalgia is a symptom of dental disease, for example inflammatory cyst in the mandible. Indeed, most of the common oral pathologies have been reported as possible sources of barodontalgia: dental caries, defective tooth restoration, pulpitis, pulp necrosis, apical periodontitis, periodontal pockets, impacted teeth, and mucous retention cysts. One exception is barodontalgia manifested as referred pain from barosinusitis or barotitis-media. The latter two conditions are generated from pressure changes rather than pressure-related flare-up of pre-existing conditions.

Classification

The Fédération dentaire internationale describes 4 classes of barodontalgia. The classes are based on signs and symptoms. They also provide specific and valuable recommendations for therapeutic intervention.