Common Types Of Dental Emergencies & How To Treat Them

Dental Emergencies You’re More Likely To Deal With & What To Do About Them

There are a variety of things that can happen to your mouth and some of them require immediate dental attention while you can wait until the next day or so for others. But which is which? The last thing you want to do is to make a mistake and wind up having to have expensive work done at a Columbus dentist’s office.

We are here to help. Here are some dental emergencies you’re more likely to deal with and what to do about them.

Chipped, Broken, Or Knocked-Out Teeth Are Usually Dental Emergencies

You can have this happen a number of different ways. It can happen if you bite down on something or after a long period of time where you have been grinding your teeth at night or wound up on the wrong end of an elbow when two of you are going up for a rebound in basketball. Whatever the case, your mouth hurts and you can have pieces of your teeth laying around.

What do you do? There could be a chance that the tooth could be saved, but you need to do several things. You need to locate it, see if you can put it back in, and if you can’t, put it in a solution that can preserve it as you make your way to the Columbus dentist’s office. There are also numbing gels that you can put on, but you should avoid aspirin since that can cause the bleeding to continue. Have a dental professional look at it immediately.

Breaking Your Dental Appliances Can Become An Emergency

If you find your dentures in pieces, the last thing you want to do is try to wait or fix it yourself. These were made precisely for you and there is no way you can get the exact fit again. You need to have a professional fix it either by relining it or making you a new set. Otherwise you risk having the ill-fitting denture rub up against your gums and create cuts.

Should you have a crown crack or break, you need to have that fixed as well. It is there to protect either a gap in your mouth (dental implant) or protect a dead tooth. Your Columbus dentist can customize it and have you set up with a new one fairly quickly. But if you don’t move fast, then you can have teeth shifting and other problems.

Are Wisdom Teeth Growing Considered Emergencies?

You find that your mouth is feeling weird, particularly in the back of your mouth. It might hurt in the gum area. What is it? If you look in there, you might see white spots. Those are wisdom teeth trying to come out. They usually appear in one’s late teens or early adulthood. Typically, they are not considered a dental emergency.

There is one scenario, though, where you might need immediate care. That is if the erupting wisdom teeth are impacted and causing you severe pain due the possibility that they are sideways or crowding other teeth in your jaw. Then there would have to be an emergency extraction.

Having An Abscess Or Gum Infection Should Take You To The Dentist Immediately

If you have bacteria filling up space in between your teeth and get infected, this is an abscess. It can happen from gum disease like periodontitis. The last thing you want to do is wait since an infection can run rampant through your jaw and create problems like loose teeth. A dentist has to take a close look and possibly do a deep cleaning or other work to keep things from getting worse.

Soft Tissue Injuries Are Common Dental Emergencies

Things can happen to the soft tissue in your mouth, like your cheeks, gums, tongue and your lips. If you do have an injury there, dentists can fix it, but you need to get there quickly to avoid excessive swelling, scarring or long-term damage. Do not wait, otherwise it can worsen or get infected.

Ultimately, speed is the most important thing when it comes to dental emergencies. Are you unsure if your situation qualifies as one? Call your Columbus dentist’s office even if it is not office hours. Someone may be on call to answer your question. You can also call a hospital to see if you need to come into the emergency room.

The most important thing to do is to stay calm and have a plan. The longer you spend panicking the worse your chances of having it fixed with a minimum of effort becomes. Be prepared and be ready to move as fast as possible. Then the odds of keeping your smile looking good vastly improve. That will make you happy.

Contact Columbus’ Leading Dentists Today!

Are you worried that you might have a dental emergency? Contact Columbus’ leading dentists today. The staff at US Dental Medical will gladly answer any questions that you might have and direct you to them if they deem it a dental emergency. Give them a call today to make an appointment: 614-252-3181