Most people know that they need to seek emergency care if their mouth is bleeding heavily or if a tooth has fallen out. But what about other dental emergencies that are not quite so obvious? Tooth injuries may occur for a variety of reasons, from biting down too hard on a tough food or accidently hitting your teeth against a fixed object. In many cases, dental patients will need emergency dental care if their tooth is broken or chipped.

Seeking immediate care greatly increases the likelihood of preserving a natural tooth and minimizes long-term costs by avoiding more extensive (and expensive) treatment.

Broken or Chipped Teeth

Before you can see an emergency dentist, you will need to save any broken pieces of your tooth and rinse your mouth and any other affected areas with water to help control bleeding. You can also place a piece of gauze on the area for roughly ten minutes to stop any ongoing bleeding.

Depending on the severity of your injury, it may not be necessary to schedule an immediate appointment. For minor chips that don’t cause pain or bleeding, you can usually wait a few days before scheduling an emergency dental visit. For a more severe chip, the dentist will likely need to replace your tooth with composite material. Temporary kits are available at drugstores that can help cover any jagged edges or fill in a gap left by a chipped tooth.

Toothache

A throbbing, sharp toothache that won’t stop is one of the most common dental emergencies. The pain can range from mild to severe, and it’s often distracting enough to keep people from sleeping or functioning normally.

While it isn’t always necessary to go to the emergency room for tooth pain, you should still seek prompt treatment. GPs are not equipped to handle dental issues beyond providing temporary pain relief, so it’s best to visit an emergency dentist for advice.

Other symptoms that should prompt immediate emergency dental care include an abscessed tooth (a pus-filled pocket), uncontrolled bleeding, or swollen lymph nodes. Visiting an emergency dentist allows you to preserve your oral health, avoid complications, and feel good again. The dentist will numb the area before drilling and pulling the tooth, clearing away bacteria and encouraging healthy tissue growth in the area. Then, the dentist will disinfect and fill the hole, restoring the tooth to normal function.

Tooth Sensitivity

If you suffer from tooth sensitivity, it can be difficult to enjoy many of the foods and drinks that bring you joy. This common dental condition happens when the hard, protective outer layer of your teeth, called enamel, wears down, revealing the softer inner layer, known as dentin, that contains microscopic tubes that connect to nerves inside the tooth. When these tubes are stimulated by hot or cold food or drink, or even by breathing in cold air, they trigger a temporary twinge of pain.

In most cases, though, tooth sensitivity doesn’t qualify as a true dental emergency, since the discomfort is usually short-lived and easily treated with a few at-home oral care steps. That said, you should see your dentist if the sensitivity persists or is accompanied by throbbing pain, visible damage, or bleeding in the mouth. These symptoms could indicate an infection. The sooner you receive treatment, the better. The Salt Run Family Dentistry team is always available to provide comfort and guidance.

Infections

Infections such as a dental abscess are a dental emergency that needs to be treated with the same urgency as any other medical issue. The dentist will usually drain the abscess under local anaesthetic and prescribe antibiotics.

A dental abscess is a pocket of pus that results from a bacterial tooth infection. It can cause severe tooth pain, swollen gums, jaw swelling, tender lymph nodes in the neck, fever, a pimple-like bump on the gums and sensitivity to hot or cold food and liquid.

The aim of emergency dental care is to minimise the long-term damage caused by a problem like this and prevent complications such as a life-threatening sepsis. Patients are not likely to receive this level of treatment at their GP or local Accident and Emergency department as they do not have the necessary specialist knowledge of dentistry. However, the ER will often give temporary pain relief and administer antibiotics. This can help to ease the symptoms until a dentist can be seen.