Dental Emergency
What is a dental emergency? PAIN or ESTHETICS – We don’t care which dental emergency you are experiencing, just type in the box below to talk to us immediately or call my emergency number! We can help!
The main dental emergencies that are encountered are
- Knocked out tooth
- Intense pain and/or swelling
- Bleeding after a dental surgery
- Falls with broken teeth and orofacial cuts
- Broken teeth
- Esthetic emergencies
- Broken denture or other dental appliance
- Orthodontic emergencies – covered in link
Some emergencies are more of an emergency than others. Complications like bleeding after a surgery can be a true emergency where as there really are no true orthodontic emergencies. Many dental emergencies can be manged at home until the dental office is open and fully staffed again.
Knocked out teeth or knocked out tooth
This is a true emergency and needs to be addressed as quickly as possible. If the tooth is replaced within 2 hours it will retake and possibly have no future complications. This event is covered in much ore detail in our tooth knocked out blog.
Intense dental pain – Facial swelling
This should go without saying, but get in to a dentist asap. Advil (ibuprofen) and Tylenol (acetaminophen) mixed together is about the best you can do to mask the pain, but even that will only last for so long. Intense pain usually indicates a tooth needs to be removed or needs a root canal. Swelling needs to be addressed immediately. It is a sign of infection or inflammation and can become life threatening.
If you are in enough pain to be using an ice pack, PLEASE CALL!! We will see you now!
Bleeding after dental surgery
Get a tea bag, if you have one, and place directly against the bleeding area. You will likely need to add gauze over it so that when you bite you can apply pressure to the area. If you are on a blood thinner, this may not be enough and you will likely need to see the dentist so that they can apply a blood clotting agent. Call the doctor that did the surgery.
Falls with broken teeth and orofacial cuts, Broken teeth, Esthetic emergencies, and Broken denture or other dental appliance
All of these require a dentists attention. How quickly you need to be seen depends on the severity of the incident. A back broken tooth that isn’t hurting is not an emergency and can be taken care of anytime in the next several weeks. If there is no serious head trauma during a fall, such as passing out, then coming in to see a dentist soon is a good idea. Esthetic emergencies depend on what you have coming up.