What to Expect During a Dental Emergency: A Guide to Urgent Care

Dental emergencies can occur at any time, just like any other medical crisis.

In no uncertain terms, a dental emergency demands immediate attention in most cases.

How can you have a dental emergency? Well, there are many reasons, from an infection to a blow to your mouth or an excruciating toothache.

Many clinics are ready to help you with urgent care. 

For instance, our Emergency Dental Care Services at 4th Floor Dental provides various emergency dental treatments.

However, we understand that a dental emergency can be terrifying.

In this article, we will help you identify a dental emergency as soon as possible. 

Also, we will guide you through the steps to control the situation before coming to the clinic. 

What is a dental emergency?

Any dental issue that requires immediate treatment to relieve serious pain, stop bleeding, or save a tooth is considered an emergency.

Besides, any infections that could be life-threatening are also considered dental emergencies.

Common types of dental emergencies

If you're unsure whether you have a dental emergency, let's consider the following situations:

• If you've lost a tooth, getting help quickly could save it.
• Severe pain, bleeding, or an infection means it's time to see a 4th Floor Dental dentist. 
• Swelling, bumps on the gums, or a swollen face could indicate an abscess and require urgent care. 
• Even without pain, a loose tooth is a serious problem.

Severe tooth pain

A severe toothache typically appears after a blow, a chipped or broken tooth, or a bacterial infection.

In a dental emergency, a toothache can be excruciatingly painful, presenting as sharp, jabbing tooth pain or throbbing tooth pain. It may also come with teeth sensitivity, swelling in your gums, headaches, fever, and chills.

Cavities, an abscessed tooth, a cracked tooth, or a damaged dental restoration such as a filling or a dental crown can also cause intense pain.

Experiencing extreme tooth pain, fever, and chills indicates that you are dealing with a dental emergency.

Knocked-out or broken tooth

A knocked-out tooth is a tooth that has been knocked out of its socket and often out of your mouth. 

If a tooth gets knocked out, it's a serious injury and needs immediate attention. 

Knocked-out teeth are typically caused by significant force, such as falls, accidents while cycling, injuries from contact sports, traffic accidents, and assaults.

A broken tooth can also be a dental emergency.

This occurs when something damages your tooth, causing a small break, crack, or fracture. 

The crack may be small and not affect your tooth, or it may cause your tooth to break in pieces or split. A badly cracked tooth may require immediate dental attention.

Any break of a dental bonding or veneer may not be considered a dental emergency unless you have symptoms like pain, swelling, and bleeding.

Swelling or abscess

A tooth abscess is a pocket of pus caused by a bacterial infection in your gums. It usually looks like a red, swollen bump, boil, or pimple. The infection affects the affected tooth and can spread to the surrounding bone and neighboring teeth.

Swelling is a sign of an infection. It could also cause tooth sensitivity to cold and hot, high fever, tender lymph nodes in your neck and toothache. 

If you have an abscess, you need to see your dentist right away.

When should you seek urgent care?

When experiencing a dental emergency, you should first call your dentist as a top priority. 

Many dentists have an emergency number you can call if it’s after regular business hours.

But if you don’t have a dentist or if your dentist is unavailable, go to an urgent care center or your nearest emergency room.

What happens during an urgent dental care visit?

When you first visit the emergency dental team, they will examine you to better understand your condition. 

They will ask about your current symptoms, when they started, if they got worse over time, how you would rate or describe your pain, and if anything seemed to trigger these symptoms.

When patients visit their emergency dentist, they are often in a lot of pain. The first priority for the dental team is to reduce the level of pain experienced by the patient.

You may start with taking a pill or getting a shot for immediate relief. 

Patients needing urgent dental care will require further treatment beyond just relieving the pain. 

During an urgent dental appointment, you may not receive complete treatment. 

Still, the dental team may begin the treatment process by addressing immediate issues, such as removing a broken tooth or reducing swelling and other symptoms by removing some gum tissue.

Be aware that you might leave your emergency appointment with a referral for another appointment. 

Immediate steps to take before reaching urgent care

• Start rinsing your mouth with warm water when you have a severe toothache. 

If your mouth is swollen, apply a cold compress to the outside of your mouth or cheek. 

You can also take over-the-counter pain relievers.

• When you have a badly broken tooth, save and rinse any broken pieces of your tooth. 

If there’s bleeding, apply a piece of gauze to the area for about 10 minutes, or until the bleeding stops.

• But if a tooth gets knocked out, pick it up by the part you normally see in your mouth and rinse the root with water. 

Don't scrub it or remove any tissue. If you can, try to put the tooth back in place. 

Your dentist has the best chance of saving a knocked-out tooth if it's back in place within an hour.

• Abscess? Apply a cold compress to the outside of your mouth or cheek.

Conclusions

In a dental emergency we need to act quickly and be prepared. 

Make sure to have your dentist's emergency number on hand or know the location of a clinic that provides urgent care. 

By following these steps, you have a better chance of saving your tooth, staying calm, and starting your treatment when you get to the clinic.

Yes, it's scary, but like any other emergency, try to stay calm and focus on caring for yourself or your family member.

Our dental team at 4th Floor Dental is ready to assist you in any emergency. Don't hesitate to contact us here.