Emergency Dentistry

What is a dental emergency?

Various types of dental emergencies can occur. For instance, a sudden and severe toothache, chipping or cracking a tooth due to an accident, a damaged or loose restoration, or a lost or damaged tooth can all qualify as dental emergencies. To determine if your situation is an emergency, you need to ask yourself the following questions:

• Are you experiencing severe pain or swelling?
• Are you suffering from a painful toothache that won’t go away?
• Have you lost a tooth, or has it been knocked out?
• Do you have swelling in your face or cheeks accompanied by a toothache?
• Are you experiencing extreme tooth sensitivity?
• Are you bleeding from your mouth and unable to stop it?
• Have you injured your jaw?

Any dental problem requiring immediate treatment to stop bleeding, alleviate severe pain, or save a tooth is considered an emergency. This also applies to severe infections that can be life-threatening and require professional care as soon as possible.

What’s the best way to handle a dental emergency?

If you experience a dental emergency, the best action is to contact your dentist. However, you should visit the nearest emergency room if the issue is severe or outside regular office hours.

Depending on the type of dental emergency you are facing, there are some steps you can take to alleviate pain and help the situation. Here are some suggestions:

• Dissolve a teaspoon of salt in a mug of warm water and use it as a mouthwash.
• Try flossing to relieve any gum pressure.
• Use a cold compress on the swollen or painful area.
• Rinse with diluted hydrogen peroxide to kill bacteria.
• Take over-the-counter pain medication to alleviate pain.

What should I do if I have a knocked out tooth?

1. Don’t touch the roots or top of the tooth. Only pick up and handle your lost tooth by the sides and chewing surface.

2. Clean the tooth gently with water or milk. Do not try to rub, scrub, dry off, or use soaps or chemicals to clean your lost tooth.

3. If possible, put the tooth back in the socket. Once gently cleaned, try to gently replace the tooth, handling only the sides and bottom. Once replaced, you can softly bite down to keep it there. Make sure your tooth is appropriately oriented and not backward. Do not try to force it if it won’t fit properly.

4. If you can’t put it back, keep it moist. Placing the tooth in a glass of milk to soak is a great option. Alternatively, you can softly hold the tooth between your gums and cheek. However, this shouldn’t be done with younger children who could swallow the tooth. Don’t use tap water to soak a knocked-out tooth because it could damage the roots. If you don’t have cow’s milk and can’t hold your tooth in its socket or your cheek, spitting into a container and soaking the tooth in saliva is the next best option.

5. Call the dentist. Getting to a dentist as quickly as possible is critical. Although it is possible to reattach a tooth an hour or more after it has been knocked out, the sooner you can see a dentist, the better the chances are of reattaching it.