What is Emergency Dental Care?
Accidents can happen to anyone at anytime. If you have suffered an accident that has caused oral trauma, you may be wondering if you need to seek emergency dental care. Before thinking about going to an emergency dentist, it is important to assess the severity of the injury. If your injury is severe and you think it is a true medical emergency, do not hesitate to call 911 or go directly to an emergency room. If your injury is primarily dental, it is important to know what requires an emergency dental visit and what can wait until you can schedule a regular visit. Like any emergency room, an emergency visit can be costly.
What types of mouth injuries require an emergency visit?
The most common types of dental injuries that require immediate attention are broken or cracked teeth and teeth being knocked out. Usually these injuries happen as a result of physical accidents, sports related injuries, or by food that is too hard. It is possible for the injury to be minor enough to wait until normal dental hours, however there are certain situations that would require you to seek dental attention immediately.
If the crack in the tooth is severe it may cause nerve damage. If this is the case, you should seek a dentist immediately. This includes losing a large part of the tooth as a result of the crack or injury. Similarly, if your tooth is knocked out completely as a result of the injury, you should seek a dentist right away.
If your tooth is knocked out completely, there are a few guidelines to follow while you make your way to a dentist. The first thing to know is that you should try and touch the lost tooth as little as possible. The first thing that you can do is to try and put the tooth back into the socket. If you can get it in there, try and bite down on moist gauze or a wet teabag to keep it in the socket. Be very careful that you don’t accidentally swallow the tooth. If you can’t get the tooth in the socket, you should rinse it off and put it in a container of milk or your own saliva. In the meantime, you can apply a cold compress in order to help with the pain and the bleeding.
What are the other types of situations that can cause an emergency visit?
There are other types of situations that require immediate dental work besides injuries. In some cases, a tooth abscess can cause severe pain. This pain can become so unbearable that you may consider an immediate dental visit.
In any of these cases, you should first try and call your regular dentist. If they can get you in for an appointment, you may be able to avoid the cost of an emergency room. If they can’t get you in, they may be able to direct you to a dentist that can see you. If you are unable to reach your dentist, you should head to an emergency facility to be assessed.
More About Dental Emergencies : Emergency Dentistry and Tooth Extraction