Most dental offices provide some sort of immediate dental care for patients who are facing an emergency. These types of emergencies are often caused by an injury to the mouth which results in fractured or knocked-out teeth, severe pain or bleeding, as well as any type of severe lacerations to the gums.
Typically, dentists keep their schedules open just enough to accommodate people for emergency appointments. However, in more severe cases, you may be advised to visit the emergency room at your local hospital first.
The term dental emergency covers a wide range of problems and may include any of the following:
Dislodged or misaligned tooth
While this is not life threatening, it should still be addressed by your dentist as soon as possible. This is likely to be highly uncomfortable, but it’s important that you not try and push the tooth back into place. However, you may use your finger to apply pressure to the tooth, or lightly bite down on it to hold the tooth in place until your dentist will see you.
Teeth that have been knocked out
This can often lead to severe blood loss if not addressed quickly. The best way to treat this is to apply pressure to the injury with a cold compress until you get to your dentist’s office. If you can, try to find the dislodged tooth, clean it off and try and place it back in its socket. Another alternative is to place the tooth in milk or a wet cloth while you’re on your way to the dentist. Teeth can still be successfully re-implanted for up to 30 minutes after it’s been knocked out. Therefore, once you’ve found your missing tooth, get to the dentist as soon as you can.
Abscess
This is a serious form of infection that effects the root of the tooth or the gum line and can be extremely painful to deal with. Furthermore, it will likely cause swelling in the surrounding tissue. If this is not treated immediately, the infection could start to spread to other parts of your body resulting in blood infections or worse.
Broken, Chipped or Cracked Teeth
If you’ve chipped or broken a tooth and it is not causing you any pain, then it is not considered a dental emergency. Still, while a broken tooth is not serious or life-threatening, you should still get in to see your dentist at the earliest possible convenience to avoid any further complications. Regardless of the severity of the damage, try to avoid chewing with that area of your mouth until you can get in to see your dentist.
While these are only a few situations that are dental emergency, anything that causes a significant amount of blood loss or severe pain, should be brought to the attention of your dentist in Indianapolis, IN as soon as possible to remedy the problem and avoid other complications.
