What Are Dental Emergencies?
Emergency dental care is essential, but people often can’t distinguish regular dental needs from dental emergencies. You must only seek emergency dental care in true dental emergencies, mainly if you’re contacting the dental office on the weekend or late at night. Dental emergencies, as opposed to general dental needs, must be addressed within a few hours to prevent massive complications. Dental emergencies are generally situations wherein you’ve lost a tooth, have severe toothaches, signs of infections, severe bleeding, or severely fractured teeth due to injuries or trauma. Meanwhile, you shouldn’t contact an emergency dentist near me if you have mild toothaches, minor chipped teeth, or lost fillings/ crowns. These situations can wait for a few days so that you can schedule your appointment at regular hours.
What To Do During Dental Emergencies?
Dental emergencies are also unpredictable like all emergencies — they can happen at any moment without prior warning. As such, you must know how to deal with various dental emergencies to handle them correctly. When dental emergencies strike, you don’t have the time to delay or prevaricate. The situation can worsen if you don’t seek emergency dental care immediately. However, you might need to follow some dental care tips before finding an emergency dentist to handle the situation. Some situations require immediate dental services, and others don’t require immediate treatment. You must also distinguish between what is or isn’t a dental emergency. Below, we highlight some of the most common dental emergencies and how you can deal with them.
Types of Dental Emergencies
- Broken Tooth: Dental injuries and trauma, usually because of accidents, falls, and contact sports, can lead to broken teeth. If your teeth are fractured, you must look for the broken fragments, collect them, place them in a container with warm salt water or milk, and take them to the nearest emergency dentist. You should also clean the injured area with warm water and place a cold compress to reduce the discomfort and swelling.
- Knocked-Out Tooth: If your tooth gets knocked out completely because of an accident or dental injury, you must act immediately. Knocked-out teeth can be replaced and re-attached, but only if you’re quick to respond. You should look for the tooth, rinse it clean (but don’t scrub it), place it in a container with warm salt water or milk, and take it to the nearest emergency dentist.
- Severe Toothache: Toothaches can happen for several reasons — some don’t require emergency dental care, and some do. If you have a toothache, you should try flossing your teeth to ensure it’s not because of food stuck in them. If the toothache persists or becomes severe, contact an emergency dentist immediately — it could be an abscess or dental infection.
- Injuries and Trauma: If you have a severe mouth injury or trauma, you might need emergency dental care. If your soft tissues, such as the tongue, cheeks, and lips, are injured or bleeding, you can clean the area and contact the dentist.
What Is The Difference Between A Dental Emergency And Urgent Dental Care?
Patients often mistake confusing urgent dental care needs with dental emergencies. The confusion is understandable — sometimes, it’s hard to determine if you’re dealing with a true dental emergency or something that can wait a few hours or days. Generally speaking, the primary difference between a dental emergency and urgent dental care is the severity and need for immediate response. Dental emergencies worsen if you don’t take immediate action. If you have a knocked-out or abscessed tooth, you must take immediate action — even minor delays can exacerbate the situation, leading to total tooth loss. In these cases, you must contact your nearest emergency dentist regardless of the day or time. However, you can wait for regular dental clinic hours if you have a minor crack on your tooth’s surface or your filling has come off. Minor damages can also lead to dental decay, but you generally have some time to act and seal the crack. If you’re unsure of your dental situation, contact your emergency dentist and explain the problem — they’ll let you know if you need to visit the dental clinic immediately.
Should I Go To A Hospital’s Emergency Room Or A Local Emergency Dentist?
If you have a dental emergency, you must visit your local dentist instead of a hospital’s emergency room. That’s because emergency rooms in hospitals often lack the specialization and apparatus to deal with dental emergencies. At most, they can provide antibiotics for infections and stop bleeding, but they can’t save your tooth or reattach a knocked-out tooth. In most cases, hospitals refer you to another local emergency dentist. Going from an overcrowded emergency room to an emergency dentist eats up time you don’t have. You must go to a local emergency dentist immediately instead of the hospital emergency room.
Are Emergency Dental Procedures Performed Under Anesthesia?
Emergency dental procedures can be performed under local anesthesia with sedatives or general anesthesia, depending on your comfort level and the dentist’s recommendation. Emergency dentists often recommend general anesthesia if the procedure is very severe. However, in most emergency dental treatments, the dentist uses local anesthesia with sedatives for emergency tooth removal or re-attachment. The local anesthesia ensures physical comfort, and the sedatives provide the alleviation of anxiety.
Are Emergency Dental Teams Available 24 Hours A Day?
Hospital emergency rooms don’t have on-call dentists because dental emergencies are rare. As such, you should only visit a local dentist for dental emergencies, and all dental clinics don’t have emergency dental teams. As such, you should specifically find dental clinics with emergency services. You should also call the dentist ahead of time to ensure someone will be there to attend to you.
Schedule An Appointment For Dental Emergencies
URBN Dental is one of the best walk-in dentist clinics for emergency dental services near me in Houston, TX. If you have a dental emergency, please call the number provided by your dental team. The local emergency dentist will ask about your symptoms and problems and determine if you need emergency dental care. If so, the dentist will provide some immediate steps and ask you to drive to the clinic immediately. In the case of dental emergencies, you can get immediate appointments with no delay. Our dental clinic is located in Midtown Houston — please schedule an appointment online.