It’s been an exhilarating day—you’d been working all summer to get ready for your first game in the new intramural basketball league that you joined. When you arrived at the gym, the team was pumped even though it was just friendly competition.
You stepped onto the court, jersey tucked in and shoes laced tight, ready to dominate. After the first run up and down the court, you take an elbow to the face during a rebound a knock a tooth out. Everyone gathered around to help, but no one knew who to call except the nearest ER. The truth is that your emergency dentist is the best person to contact when you have an injury in your mouth.
Understanding Dental Emergencies
If your mouth becomes injured, that’s what’s known as a dental emergency! Understandably, most patients automatically think that they need to visit the emergency room. Many don’t know that the nurses in the ER will refer you back to a dentist if the injury isn’t concerning any other parts of your body.
Here’s something important to remember: Time is of the essence when it comes to saving your natural teeth! Your emergency dentist can go into further detail with you about which accidents classify as a dental emergency.
What is a Dental Emergency?
A dental emergency is any unexpected pain, injury, or trauma that occurs and affects your mouth or jaw. Some common dental emergencies that a dentist might see usually sees are:
- Knocked out teeth
- Chipped, cracked or broken permanent teeth
- Lost, or broken crowns, inlays, onlays, veneers or fillings
- Soft tissue injuries to the lips, cheeks, gums or tongue
- Abscessed teeth
- Broken or dislocated jaw
Tips from Your Emergency Dentist
When it comes to dental emergencies, there are a few things that you can do to keep your emergency at bay until you reach your dentist.
Keep the area clean
If you’ve lost or chipped a tooth or have a soft tissue injury, you must avoid infection by keeping the damaged area clean. For lost or chipped teeth, hold the crown of the tooth under running warm water to remove debris. Try to keep any and all natural fibers still attached to the tooth. Swish warm water to clean the area around the damaged socket.
Always try to return the tooth or piece of tooth to the socket if you can. If that’s impossible at the time, store your tooth in whole milk until you make it to the dental office.
Keep your blood clotting
It’s important to remember that injuries to the face, head and neck bleed more heavily than those on any other part of the body because of the regular blood flow in those areas. Seeing large amounts of blood can be shocking, but it doesn’t always mean that the injury is severe.
Apply gentle pressure with a sterile cloth to slow the bleeding. If you are still unable to control the blood flow, it may be best to see the nearest health professional.
Keep the area cold
Cold will help you in two ways. It slows the flow of blood, and will help reduce inflammation which causes pain. Apply a cold compress to affected areas to minimize the damage until you can reach our office.
Here’s a helpful tip when it comes to dental emergencies: stay calm and get to your dentist’s office quick!
About Our Office
Have you or a loved one recently experienced a dental emergency? Don’t panic! Dr. Nirav Patel and the rest of our office team always pick up the phone—even after-hours for emergency assistance. Walk-ins are more than welcome! If you would like advice on what to do next after an accident, give our office a call.