Common Dental Emergencies & Care Tips

Dental emergencies are not all that uncommon. Whether it’s a chipped tooth, knocked out tooth, or serious and sudden tooth pain from a different cause, there is emergency dental care that can help in your time of distress. It’s important to know what you should do if a dental emergency strikes. What You Can Do When a dental emergency occurs, there are dental emergency tips you can follow to mitigate the damage. Accidents happen—people chip teeth all the time and can even lose them completely. Sometimes we neglect our diet a little too much, and it catches up to us in the form of a cavity that could even require a root canal. In some cases an emergency dentist appointment is necessary; but still, there are things you can do at home in-between contacting your dentist and your arrival. These care tips can be the difference between losing a tooth or saving a tooth.

• If you lose an adult tooth. It’s not uncommon that, during a sporting event, someone knocks a tooth out. If this happens to you, you should not just stick the tooth in your pocket and schedule a dentist appointment for later that week. You should keep it moist at all times, never letting it dry. Put it in a cup of milk or even try to place it back into the socket if possible. After that, you should immediately head to an emergency dental clinic to see what they can do. Better yet, you can use a mouth guard the next time you play sports to avoid this very common injury again.

• If you seriously chip or crack a tooth. Rinse your mouth with tepid water to clear away any dirt or blood from the injury site. Hold a cold compress against the area to reduce any swelling and inflammation. Your local Calgary dentist may be able to perform emergency tooth repair in the area to mitigate any extra damage that could come from waiting.

• If you have serious tooth pain. This could be indicative of a bad cavity. It is a serious matter, and the sooner you make it into a dental clinic for a checkup the better. This could be the difference between a filling or a root canal treatment.