Emergency Dental Care: Your Do’s and Dont’s to Minimise Damage

03 Jun 2024

Unfortunately, a dental emergency may happen at any moment. A trauma, resulting from a nasty road accident, an unfortunate sports injury or in any other way, may disrupt the normal course of your life any moment. Even negligence to normal oral health issues like cavities can snowball into something serious and you may have to summon emergency dental care to resolve the problem.

It is a positive development that nowadays, more and more oral health clinics are offering the emergency treatments. The earlier you are subjected to proper treatment, the better off you’re. Yet it is seen that a considerable number of patients, who summon emergency dental treatments, could have done with regular dental treatments. In this circumstance, it is relevant to discuss about dental emergencies once again, so that next time you’ve a dental health issue, you’ll know the right kind of treatment to avail.

A clear idea about emergency oral health issues

There exists a hairline distinction between emergency and ordinary dental issues. Certain oral health conditions require immediate medical intervention although all such cases can’t be termed as an emergency condition. In fact, every case of tooth ache can never come under dental emergency and an oral health expert knows better, which cases are to be treated on high priority basis and which aren’t.

Typical conditions that require emergency dental treatment include the following:

• Serious infection or tooth abscess
• Loss of filling or crown
• Severe injury to the teeth and the gums
• Crippling pain or severe bleeding that occurs soon after any dental treatment
• Fractured, loosened or completely knocked out teeth
• Chipped or cracked teeth
• Wounds to the tissues in the tongue, cheeks or lips

If you accidentally suffer from any of these conditions, just seek a emergency dental care centre nearby and avail the necessary clinical care and guidance.

A brief guideline to handling dental emergencies and minimise damage

Any dental trauma that calls for an emergency treatment is bound to make you feel nervous and helpless. But it is important for you to keep your cool and take some measures to minimise the damage. Suppose one of your teeth gets loose or broken. Just leave it in its socket inside your mouth till an oral healthcare specialist at an emergency dental care centre sees you. If you’ve a knocked out tooth, pick up the crown carefully without affecting its network of nerves at the bottom. Then, drop it in a cup of cold milk or water and rush to your nearest emergency dentist with it. Do not even try to wipe away the dirt from it in any circumstance, as it may damage the root system and making the crown unsuitable for restoration.