Dental emergencies occur at the most unexpected times and may be accompanied by severe pain that needs urgent treatment. Whether it is a knocked-out tooth, a severe toothache, or a chipped dental prosthesis, the course of action you take in those vital moments defines the future of your oral health.
By knowing some signs of a dental emergency and the measures that should be taken, you can handle the situation in the best way possible, protecting your teeth and preventing further damage until you can seek professional help.
Understanding What A Dental Emergency Is
A dental emergency is any severe condition involving the teeth, gums, or tissues surrounding the teeth that requires an urgent solution to help manage pain, avoid a complication, or save a tooth.
Dental emergencies are mostly related to injuries, caries, or chronic diseases that have become acute. They could be severe, excruciating pain, swelling within the mouth, or an observable injury to your oral cavity. Unlike normal cases, where you can visit a dentist when you book an appointment, emergencies do not allow this since they require immediate attention to prevent other problems.
In an untreated dental emergency, you could suffer from tooth loss or need more complex treatment and pay more. Understanding what constitutes an emergency and how to respond to it can save your future dental health.
In most situations, prevention is the only solution to retain a tooth or to prevent the spread of the infection. If you are unsure whether your case is an emergency, it is wise to consult a dentist. Your dentist will help you identify anything amiss and provide solutions.
Common Examples of Dental Emergencies
Not all dental complications are emergencies, but some should be treated immediately to avoid worsening or unbearable pain. Thus, it is vital to identify these emergencies and seek treatment early. Some common dental emergencies include the following:
Badly Cracked Teeth
One of the more severe forms of dental emergencies is a badly cracked tooth, where the crack may go deep into the tooth's layers. Chips may be difficult to see with the naked eye but may lead to severe discomfort, especially when chewing or when the tooth is sensitive to hot or cold foods.
Often, the crack extends to the dentin or even the pulp chamber, where the tooth's nerve endings are located. Such an extent of damage causes sensations like sharp, severe, occasional pain, tenderness, and inflammation of the gum around the involved tooth.
When a crack is left unfixed, it could worsen and cause infections or abscesses in the mouth. Bacteria can penetrate through the cracks and cause inflammation within the tooth, which may also spread to the surrounding bone and gum tissues. If left untreated, the condition may progress and warrant more complex procedures like a root canal or tooth extraction.
Visiting the dentist as soon as possible for a badly cracked tooth is essential. After the procedure, you should rinse your mouth with warm water to remove bacteria and debris but do not use hot or cold water, as this can cause more discomfort.
If there is inflammation, putting ice on the skin of your cheek will help alleviate it. You must also avoid chewing on the side of the mouth where the crack is to avoid aggravating it. Over-the-counter drugs may provide some symptomatic relief but are no substitute for seeing a dentist.
Severe Toothache
Experiencing a sharp pain in one of your teeth means that you may have a severe dental problem like cavities, an infection, or damaged nerves. The pain can be steady, stabbing, or travel to other areas of your face, and it usually increases when swallowing or applying pressure to the sore spot. At times, there can be some signs of inflammation, like swelling or even fever, which may be associated with an infection.
Intense tooth pain is most often due to inflammation of the pulp, the soft central tissue of your tooth. This can cause inflammation and abscess formation, which should be treated as an emergency to prevent further complications, such as tooth loss or infection spreading to the surrounding tissues.
To control the pain at home, use a warm salt water rinse and take some non-prescription medicine, but do not put aspirin on the affected tooth or gum. A severe toothache requires urgent dental treatment to treat the cause promptly. The treatment can range from a simple filling to root canal treatment to extraction if the case is severe.
Knocked-out Tooth
A knocked-out tooth is a severe dental emergency that should be addressed as soon as possible to increase the chances of preserving it. If the tooth is completely knocked out, the tissues, nerves, and blood vessels around it are also affected.
However, if your tooth is removed from the socket, it can usually be reinserted within a short period if managed appropriately. The first stage involves identifying the tooth's position and manipulating it so it does not come into contact with the root.
Then, grasp the tooth by its crown, and if it is dirty, rinse it with water, but do not clean it vigorously or remove any soft tissue remnants. If you can, you should attempt to put the tooth back into its socket and keep it in place with moderate pressure.
If it is impossible to replace the tooth, rinse it gently under running water, put it in a glass of milk or a tooth preservation solution, or place it under the tongue. It is very important to act fast after suffering a knocked-out tooth. If you want to increase your chances of survival, you should visit a dentist within half an hour to an hour.
After assessing the situation, the dentist will clean the area, reposition the tooth if necessary, and then immobilize the tooth using a splint. If the tooth becomes reattached, more procedures, such as a root canal, may be required to regain its full functional capacity.
Partially Dislodged Tooth
A partially knocked-out or dislodged tooth is one in which your tooth is shifted either upwards or downwards in the socket. This type of dental emergency may lead to pain, swelling, and bleeding of the affected area.
The tooth may still be connected to the gums and underneath tissues, but first aid is necessary to adjust and support the tooth so that no additional harm comes to the affected area. If a tooth is partially knocked out, you should not apply pressure or try repositioning it yourself. Instead, rinse your mouth with warm salt water to help wash out the area and prevent infection.
Though simple pain relievers can be used to treat the pain, you shoul seek dental care as soon as possible to avoid further problems. Ice packs on the outside of the cheek can also reduce swelling.
Your dentist will examine the extent of the injury, realign the tooth, and fix it properly using a splint to hold it in place. Additional trauma to the surrounding bone or roots may be assessed with X-rays. Sometimes, the nerve may be damaged, which may call for root canal treatment.
Broken or Lost Dental Restoration
If your dental restoration is lost or broken, you should return to the dental clinic and inform the dentist. A crown, filling, bridge, or any dental restoration that has been knocked off or fallen out leaves the tooth vulnerable to other forms of deterioration, including pain, sensitivity, or infection.
When a dental restoration is damaged, the base tooth is not shielded from bacteria or biting pressure and may develop a cavity or crack. This kind of dental emergency should be treated as early as possible so that it does not lead to worse situations.
If you lose your dental restoration or it breaks, it is necessary to retrieve the piece if possible and keep it in a secure place. You should clean the area by rinsing your mouth with warm water containing a pinch of salt, and do not bite on the side where the exposed tooth is.
You may use dental cement or temporary filling material, easily accessible at most pharmacies, to cover the area until you find a dentist. However, this is only a short-term solution. You should go to the dentist for early treatment to enable the tooth to be rebuilt so that you do not suffer from pain or infection.
Your dentist will then evaluate the status of the remaining tooth and determine whether the restoration can be refashioned or a new one is required. When the supporting tooth has rotted or broken down, additional treatment, such as a root canal or tooth removal, may be necessary.
Dental Abscess
Dental abscess occurs when pus forms a pocket in the tissues around the tooth or at the tip of the root. This can lead to severe, sharp, stabbing pain, swollen face or jaw, fever, and a foul taste in the mouth caused by the pus draining.
A dental abscess is a severe dental emergency since the infection may extend to other body organs if not treated. The main cause of dental abscess is tooth decay, which may also develop from an injury to the tooth, gums, or periodontal disease. When bacteria penetrate the tooth or gum through a cavity or crack, the body mobilizes white blood cells to fight against the bacteria, forming pus.
If you have a dental abscess, you should visit your dentist as an emergency. For home care, you can gargle warm, salty water; this will lessen some of the pain and inflammation, but you will need to see your dentist to treat the infection.
Your dentist will surgically open the abscess and remove the source of the infection. In other cases, the dentist will prescribe antibiotics to contain the spread of the infection. In severe cases, other treatments, including a root canal or extraction, may be needed to treat the cause of the problem.
If a dental abscess is left untreated, it can cause severe problems, such as the infection affecting the jawbone or entering the bloodstream. Hence, early intervention is necessary.
Severe Injury on Soft Tissue
Injury to the soft tissues in your mouth is a severe condition that affects the gums, cheeks, tongue, or lips. These injuries may occur due to an accident, a fall, sports or any other form of physical activity, or even biting something very hard. Such trauma can lead to severe bleeding, pain, and swelling, and hence, it requires treatment to avoid complications such as infections.
As for severe soft tissue damage, you should stop blood loss in the shortest possible time. Use warm, salty water to rinse your mouth gently to remove dirt from the wound. Press a clean gauze or cloth on the affected area for 10 to 15 minutes to stop the bleeding.
If the bleeding does not stop or is severe, you should seek emergency dental service. To minimize swelling and pain, a cold compress should be applied to the outside of the mouth.
Severe soft tissue injuries may also need sutures to facilitate healing and minimize the risk of infection. Your dentist will first wash the wound, examine the extent of the damage, and treat it by sowing it if the situation warrants it. If the injury is more profound, antibiotics may sometimes be given to prevent an infection.
Dental Implant that is Loose
A loose dental implant is a huge problem that should be addressed immediately. Dental implants are meant to integrate with the jawbone, offering firm support for the prosthetic teeth. If the implant becomes loose, this is a sign that something has gone wrong with the dental implant procedure and that the surrounding bone has been injured.
Some of the possible reasons are infection (peri-implantitis), applying excessive force, or any injury to the implant location. If you feel that the dental implant is loose, you should not take hard food or put much pressure on it.
You should seek the help of a dentist immediately because if treatment is not given on time, your situation could become worse, and you could face more problems, like loss of bone or complete failure of a dental implant.
Depending on the reason behind the relative looseness of the implant, the dentist will advise on whether to clean the area, replace the implant, or carry out a bone graft.
What You Should Do If You Experience a Dental Emergency
From an extremely painful toothache to a chipped tooth and other emergencies, understanding the first and subsequent actions you should take will reduce the pain and the possibility of losing a tooth or suffering a severe injury.
If you are experiencing a dental emergency, you need to respond quickly and decisively to prevent further damage. Some of the measures you could take include the following:
Preserve Your Tooth
If your tooth gets knocked out or partially displaced, it should not be handled roughly. Do not touch the root rather, grasp it only by the crown or chewing surface. If it is dirty, clean the tooth gently with slightly salty water or milk, and do not rub the tooth or wash it with soap.
For knocked-out teeth, try repositioning the tooth back in the mouth, preferably in its original position. If that is not possible, keep it in a container with milk or saline until you can consult a dentist.
Rinse Your Mouth
Rinsing your mouth with a warm saltwater solution prevents bacterial growth on the injured part. For injuries that involve bleeding, you should use a clean cloth or gauze and apply pressure over the affected areas. Do not use alcohol-containing products, mouthwash, or any material that might cause more harm to the affected region.
Manage the Pain
Ibuprofen or acetaminophen can be taken to manage the pain. Applying a cold compress to the outside of the affected cheek is also effective for inflammation. You should, however, not apply aspirin to the sensitive region of the skin, as it might cause inflammation or rash.
Call Your Doctor
After restoring order, call your dentist as soon as possible. Timing is vital with dental ailments, especially regarding knocked-out teeth or infections.
Carry Your Medical Reports
Just like any other treatment, ensure you carry any record of any past dental treatments before attending to your dental emergency. You should also bring any other documents showing conditions deemed related to your emergency that you have undergone or any recent X-ray that you may have. This will, in turn, assist the dentist in making better decisions when arriving at your prognosis.
Find a La Puente Dentist Near Me
You never know when you may experience a dental emergency. Therefore, you should learn how to handle the situation correctly when it occurs to prevent worse outcomes and permanent damage. If you or a loved one faces a dental emergency, the best action is to find a qualified emergency dentist to help alleviate pain, treat infection, and save your natural teeth.
At La Puente Advanced Dentistry, we attend to patients with dental-related ailments and injuries, ranging from infections to fractured teeth. Contact us today at 626-626-7075 to book an appointment so that we can help you deal with your dental emergency.
