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.[1][2][3] The most common victims are SCUBA divers (because in deep dives pressures can increase by several atmospheres) and military pilots (because of rapid changes).[4][5][6][7] In pilots, barodontalgia may be severe enough to cause premature cessation of flights.[8]
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.[6]
Similarly, cases of barodontalgia were reported in 0.3% of high altitude-chamber simulations in the Luftwaffe.[9]
The rate of barodontalgia was about 1 case per 100 flight-years in the Israeli Air Force.[10] During War World II, about one-tenth of American aircrews had one or more episodes of barodontalgia.[8] In a recent study, 8.2% of 331 Israeli Air Force aircrews, reported at least one episode of barodontalgia.[10]
Barodontalgia is a symptom of dental disease, for example inflammatory cyst in the mandible.[11] 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.[1
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