Are you experiencing severe pain in your teeth or gums?
If you have a dental emergency, the first thing you need to do is to visit your dentist. Many dental offices have stopped providing certain types of treatment like whitening. Many patients have also started putting off their visits to the dentist due to the pandemic.
However, a condition left untreated may result in a dental emergency. It’s crucial to know that you must never sacrifice your oral health. Not sure what your options are?
With this guide, you’ll learn about emergency dental care. That way, regardless of your dental issue, you can get proper help. Read on and find out more:
1. Knocked Out Tooth
When you play sports or fall, the resulting force from this incident can knock your tooth out. Most dentists will consider this situation as something that needs immediate dental care. If you lose your tooth this way, it’s important to follow specific steps to save it.
In most cases, your chances of saving it will diminish after an hour at most. If your tooth came out of the socket and it’s close by, you must stay calm. Ask your dentist and hold the tooth by the crown, the part you use for chewing food.
Rinse the tooth in water without agitating or rubbing it. Never use chemicals like soap since this will make it feel irritated. A good way to preserve your tooth is to hold it in its respective socket.
In case this isn’t possible, put the tooth in a container of milk. After that, rinse your mouth using warm water and apply a cold compress to your face. Ensure that it’s within the injured area to make the most out of it.
What If There’s No Saving the Tooth?
The good news is that even when you can’t save the original tooth, you can use new dental technology. Your best option to replace a missing tooth is by using a dental implant. It’s the only replacement option that looks and works like your natural ones.
With a dental implant, your dental health is consistent, and your smile will look great. Regardless, never surrender until you have no other option. Saving your natural tooth is more cost-effective, considering how expensive dental implants are.
2. Broken, Chipped, or Cracked Tooth
When you bite into something hard, your natural tooth might crack. In most cases, you can fix a small chip on the tooth using a tooth filling. However, if you break a larger piece of your tooth, you can restore it using a dental crown.
This means you have the means of repairing your tooth to make it look as good as new. The caveat is that when you undergo tooth filling or crowning, you’ll experience pain. If your tooth has larger fillings, it can become weak.
In due time, a weakened tooth will crack and break further. This means you’ll have to extract and replace it sometime in the future. Take note; dental restoration isn’t always because of dental emergencies.
Regardless, attend your dental appointments once every six months. That way, your dentist can identify problems before they become emergencies.
What if “I Have No Dental Insurance?” The good news is that you have other dental payment solutions available.
3. Toothache Pain
Pain in the tooth or its surrounding tissue can be a miserable experience. It’s because toothaches can happen for various reasons, including mouth trauma.
In some cases, toothaches happen in a way that you can’t attribute to a trauma event. It can happen when you eat or drink something cold. You can also experience a similar feeling of discomfort with hot drinks and food.
Toothaches can be a sign of various dental problems. This includes exposed tooth dentin, tooth decay, and cracked fillings.
You may have a worn tooth enamel because of tooth grinding. Regardless of your condition, it’s likely to exist even before you felt the pain.
4. Tooth Abscess
If you suffered from untreated mouth trauma, there’s a high chance it develops into a tooth or gum abscess. This is the pocket of pus developing at the root of your tooth.
The pus can drain into your mouth, leaving a disgusting taste at times. If you have a tooth or gum abscess, you’ll experience the following symptoms:
- Fever
- Halitosis
- Facial swelling, or swelling in your gums and jaw
- Halitosis
The worst part is that the bacterial infection won’t heal without medical attention. If you continue ignoring the infection, it will spread to nearby areas. It can spread as far as your neck.
Sometimes, you can get a tooth or gum abscess without dental trauma. It’s a symptom of an advanced stage of tooth decay. When this happens, it’s because the infection already penetrated your tooth’s inner pulp.
5. Tooth Sensitivity
Tooth decay often manifests as sensitivity to both hot and cold foods. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s often not a sign of a serious dental problem. It’s usually because of a loose filling or some gum recession that exposed some of the root surface’s small areas.
Consider using a specific toothpaste for sensitive teeth. Get a softer brush and use up and down strokes. Otherwise, brushing using sideway motions will wear exposed root surfaces further.
If this doesn’t work after several days, it’s time to see an emergency dentist. In cases where your tooth problem comes from pulp tissue damage, your dentist could send you to an endodontist. These people specialize in procedures related to your pulp tissue.
They’ll use procedures that clean the damaged pulp. After that, they seal the remaining space. This procedure is a root canal.
Don’t Put Off Emergency Dental Care
Here are some of the things you need to consider to determine whether you need emergency dental care. Use this guide if you’re unsure whether your current situation counts as a dental emergency. Did you find this guide helpful? If so, consider reading our other posts to learn more valuable tips and tricks related to dental care.
