Only a dentist can confirm you have dentinal hypersensitivity. If you are experiencing any dental problems, always consult your dentist for advice. If you have dentinal hypersensitivity, you can help to minimise further exposure of the dentine, care for your sensitive teeth and relieve the symptoms by making some simple changes to your daily oral care routine and dietary habits.

In this section we look at some of the main causes of sensitivity in teeth.

The sensitivity which can be experienced during and after professional tooth whitening (bleaching) treatments is different from dentinal hypersensitivity. See 'Do tooth whitening treatments cause sensitivity?' for more information.