Caring for your teeth is essential to ensure you don’t experience sudden dental problems, such as bleeding gums, tooth decay, or gum disease. However, accidents happen, and you may visit your local dental office for an emergency.
However, how do you consider a dental issue an emergency? The answer is when the dental injury is severe and you need urgent attention, or you’ll risk losing the tooth, developing an infection, and suffering from extensive damage to your teeth or gums.
What Qualifies as a Dental Emergency?
A dental emergency is any complication that requires immediate attention to save a tooth, stop bleeding, or relieve pain. Emergencies usually arise for various reasons, including:
- Using teeth to tear open objects
- Experiencing complications due to dental procedures
- Impacts on the mouth or jaw during sports
- Biting down on something hard
- Accidents or other collisions
- Sudden pain or other unexpected symptoms
The Common Dental Emergencies and What to Do With Them
There’s a wide range of dental emergencies you can experience, and it pays to know how to handle them so that you can protect your teeth and avoid costly dental procedures.
Loose or Knocked Out Teeth
Losing a tooth can be normal, especially for children ages 6 to 12 who lose their baby teeth. However, losing a tooth for adults is not normal and can cause serious problems.
Nonetheless, there’s no need to panic. In fact, it can still be reattached by your dentist if the tooth is still in good condition.
But if you want to try and save the tooth, you should:
- Pick up the tooth by its crown so that you don’t damage the root.
- Rinse the tooth and try to reinsert it into the socket.
- If you can’t, place the tooth in a small container with milk or water and visit your local dental office immediately.
Remember that if your dentist tells you they can’t reattach your tooth, they will still treat the dental injuries and discuss other options that could cover your situation.
Sudden Toothache
Toothaches happen for various reasons, such as cavities, abscesses, damaged teeth, gum disease, infected root canals, and broken teeth. If you have a sudden toothache that comes on suddenly, it’s crucial to contact your dentist as soon as possible.
If you can’t visit your dentist immediately, rinse your mouth with warm water and floss around the tooth to eliminate any food particles causing the pain. If the pain remains, place a cold compress on your cheek near the painful tooth to relieve swelling and discomfort.
Broken Dentures
If you wear dentures, you might accidentally drop them or fall with them in your mouth. Dentures can break or crack easily, leading to painful cuts inside your mouth. You can solve this in three ways:
- If the dentures are damaged, rinse your mouth and remove any pieces. Afterward, rinse your dentures and wrap them in a clean towel.
- If you have a spare pair of dentures, start wearing them until you can visit your dentist. If you don’t have one, try gluing your dentures back together with denture adhesive or superglue.
- If all else fails, contact your dental office immediately so they can get you new dentures as soon as possible.
Final Thoughts
Get immediate dental care if you experience any of the manifestations above. After all, you should avoid caution and schedule an appointment if you are unclear if you need to visit a dentist.
Sudbury Dental Arts is a local dental office in Sudbury, MA, that you can visit for dental emergency cases. We ensure that our patients are always our top priority and that their treatment is done with the utmost care and precision. Call our office today to make an appointment.
