Emergency Dental

What Is a Dental Emergency?

Emergency dental care is when a problem needs urgent attention. These include issues such as severe toothache that may be causing other symptoms as well, bleeding from your cheeks, lips, and gums that won’t stop, or facial trauma that has resulted in knocked out or partially avulsed teeth or damaged facial bones.

What to Do If You Have a Dental Emergency?

We know some dental emergencies can be upsetting and even a bit frightening. When you contact us, our compassionate dental team can offer advice on dealing with the emergency until we can schedule a visit with our dentist. When someone is in pain or needs urgent dental care, we try to see them quickly, preferably on the same day.

Which Problems Are Considered a Dental Emergency?

Dental emergencies include:

• Severe toothache.
• Knocked out or partially dislodged tooth.
• Severe injury to the soft tissues of your mouth, including your cheeks and lips.
• Dental abscess.
• Badly cracked tooth.
• Broken dental restorations.

Below is some information on how to manage these dental emergencies until you can come and see us.

Severe Toothache

Rinse your mouth thoroughly using warm water and gently floss around the tooth to remove any impacted food. Sometimes, a small piece of food can become trapped between your teeth and is enough to dislodge a tooth slightly, causing pain.

Use over-the-counter pain relief to control discomfort. Please don’t put painkillers directly on the gum or tooth because they can burn them. If you have facial swelling, gently press a cold compress onto your cheek to help relieve it.

Severe toothache is a sign that something is wrong, so even if it disappears, please schedule an appointment to come and see us.

Knocked-out or Partially Dislodged Tooth

If you knock out a tooth, pick it up carefully by the crown, the part of the tooth normally visible in your mouth, and rinse away any dirt with water. Don’t touch the tooth root or try to remove any tissue fragments.

Try to carefully reinsert the tooth, ensuring it faces the right way, but don’t force it back into place. Otherwise, store the tooth in a small container with a little milk or water and a pinch of salt and bring it to your appointment. You can also purchase tooth preservation solutions from drugstores.

Come and see us immediately; we have the best chance of saving your tooth if we can reinsert it within an hour of the accident.

When a tooth is partially knocked out, you must still see us immediately. Until you can, take over-the-counter pain relief and use a cold compress to help reduce swelling and pain.

Severe Injury to the Soft Tissues of Your Mouth

If soft tissues like your tongue, lips, gums or cheeks are bleeding due to dental injury, follow these steps.

1. Rinse your mouth with water and use a clean piece of moist gauze or an ordinary teabag to apply gentle pressure to the injury. A teabag can work well because it contains tannic acid, shrinking the blood vessels and slowing bleeding. Hold the teabag or gauze firmly in place for 15 to 20 minutes.
2. Alternatively, hold a cold compress to the outside of your cheek nearest the affected area for 5 to 10 minutes to relieve pain and bleeding.
3. If you can’t stop the bleeding, go to your nearest emergency room and continue to apply pressure until you can see an emergency dentist.

Dental Abscess

An abscess is an infection around the tooth root and can severely damage teeth and surrounding tissues. It can cause a pimple on the gum that is filled with pus. A dental abscess can affect general health without prompt emergency dental care.

If you think you may have an abscess, come and see us quickly. Until you can get here, rinse your mouth with a saltwater solution several times a day, as this will help ease the pain and draw pus to the gum surface.

Badly Cracked Tooth

Remove any pieces of tooth from your mouth and save them to bring to your appointment. Rinse your mouth with warm water to remove any other debris.

If your mouth is bleeding, use a clean piece of moist gauze to apply pressure to the area for 10 or 15 minutes until the bleeding stops. A cold compress pressed onto the outside of your cheek nearest the broken tooth will help relieve pain and reduce swelling. Come and see us as soon as possible.

Broken Dental Restoration

Dental restorations like crowns, bridges or fillings can break, fall out, or become dislodged as they age.

If you break a restoration, make an appointment to come and see us as quickly as possible and bring the restoration with you. It may be possible to clean the restoration and re-cement in your mouth. Please do not try to glue the restoration back in place yourself. Household glue is often toxic and can damage the tooth and the restoration.

If you lose a filling, try inserting a small piece of sugar-free gum into the cavity to protect the tooth until you can get the filling replaced.

When Is a Situation Not a Dental Emergency?

Some situations require urgent care but are not an emergency. These can include the following:

• Mild toothache.
• A minor chip or crack in a tooth.
• Broken braces.
• A small sore or cut in your mouth.

When you initially contact us, we will ask about your emergency to assess its urgency. Even if you don’t need to see your Hackensack dentist immediately, we can provide useful advice over the phone.

How Can I Avoid Dental Emergencies?

Some dental emergencies are unavoidable, but good preventive dentistry can often lower your risk and reduce their severity. Ensuring you brush and floss regularly and visit us for checkups and hygiene appointments can help you maintain a healthy mouth and strong teeth and gums more easily.

Anyone who plays sports should consider a custom mouthguard. A mouthguard can help reduce the risk of serious injuries to your teeth, jaws, and soft tissues and is a great investment in your dental health.

If you notice any changes to your dental health between appointments, such as a nagging toothache or discomfort, please get in touch with us. The sooner we can treat a dental problem, the lower the risk of it developing into a dental emergency.