What Kind of Situation Requires Emergency Dental Care?

Perhaps you’ve been kept awake all night by tooth pain or your child lost a tooth in an accident. These situations and many more require expert dental care sooner rather than later, which is where our emergency dentistry services play a valuable role.

At Healthy Smile Dental, Hannah Baek, DDS, and our team understand that despite your every effort to maintain great oral health, accidents and disease often have very different plans. In these instances, it’s important to have a dental team that offers emergency care in your corner.

Here are just some of the situations that may require emergency dental care.

Losing a tooth

When it comes to dental emergencies, a tooth that’s been knocked out certainly qualifies. In fact, seeking immediate care in this instance can mean the difference between saving your tooth or losing it altogether.

If you or a loved one loses a tooth in an accident, your first steps are important and should include:

• Locating and rinsing the tooth with water (holding it by the crown only)
• Placing the tooth back in the socket, if possible
• Holding the tooth in place with gauze or a teabag
• Calling us

If you can’t get the tooth to fit neatly back in the socket, preserve it between your cheek and gums or place it in a glass of milk.

If you take these steps and come see us right away, there’s a good chance we can salvage the tooth.

Cracking a tooth

If you crack a tooth, we may be able to preserve it if you take early action and seek our help. By early action, you should try and stabilize the tooth as best you can and call us to find out about a same-day appointment.

Tooth pain

Nothing can hijack your overall wellness like tooth or gum pain. In most cases, this pain stems from tooth decay or gum disease and the pain may signal a brewing infection. If you’re in pain, it’s important that you see us so we can perform a thorough evaluation of the problem, which enables us to:

• Remedy your pain
• Address or prevent infection
• Treat the underlying problem for long-term dental health

Pain in your mouth is your body’s way of telling you that something isn’t right and seeking emergency care is one of the best ways to prevent even larger problems from developing.

Trauma to your mouth

If you’ve had trauma to your mouth and the soft tissues swell or bleed, it’s always a good idea to come in so we can assess the problem. Our goal is to ensure that there isn’t more damage than meets the eye and to get you on a course of antibiotics, if necessary, to prevent infection.

Please note that if you’re bleeding profusely, you should seek urgent care right away.

Broken prosthetics

If you sustain damage to prosthetic teeth, such as dentures, bridges, or crowns, we urge you to make an appointment with us as soon as possible. Not only can we repair the damage — and restore function — we can also take steps to prevent bacteria from taking advantage of the situation, creating much larger problems down the road.

The bottom line is that any time you experience pain or a fairly major disruption in your mouth, you should err on the side of caution and make an appointment with us. Your dental health is extremely important, which is why we offer emergency dentistry.

If you have any questions about what constitutes a dental emergency, please don’t hesitate to contact our office in Woodridge, Illinois, by phone or online.