What qualifies as a dental emergency?
First of all, if the patient experiences a toothache, abscess, or due to an accident becomes mobile, loose, or even experiences denture fracture or chipping, which causes the need for immediate dental service, we consider those types of situations as needing emergency dental service.
What should I do if I lose a tooth?
If you lose a tooth, please call the office right away. If it is due to an accident, you need to call the office. Meanwhile, try to save the tooth properly. Number one, if you have milk, you can put the lost tooth into the milk, or you can simply put that tooth back into the socket or even hold it under your tongue and then go to see the dentist. It is very, very important you do timely treatment on the tooth, so this tooth may be put back into the socket, especially for young kids. If the tooth comes out because it has been loose for a long time due to gum disease or another situation, it may not be savable. Anyway, you need to go to see the dentist to see if we can do something to help you get a temporary tooth so you can go outside for social activities.
Can you treat a broken tooth in one visit?
This is a good question. It depends on the situation. Situation one is if you get a fracture or chipping which is very shallow and not deep into the pulp or nerve, in that case, yes, we may be able to repair the tooth with composite bonding at one visit. However, if the tooth gets fractured and the fracture goes into the nerve, we may need to schedule you to see the endodontist. In our office, we offer this emergency care, so you need to get root canal treatment before we restore the tooth. Likely, we can give you that service on the same day to get root canal treatment and also a temporary filling or crown, so you can look good. However, if the tooth is fractured at the same time or is dislocated and malpositioned, that means the tooth needs to be put back into the right position, and we may need to observe until a couple of weeks later to do the root canal treatment. It really depends on the situation and also the experience of the dental office to handle this dental emergency with a multidisciplinary team.
How do you handle dental emergencies after hours?
In our office, for existing patients, they have our contact information and may call or text us so we can know their situation. Normally, on my phone, with our system, I can see messages from my patients even after hours, which gives me notifications. In that case, I can quickly check patient records, see if they have any allergies or complicated medical situations, and call or text them back about how to properly handle the situation or provide them antibiotics or painkillers. However, if it's a new patient I've never seen before, and they request emergency dental care, I may check and do a tele-dentistry consultation, give them a quick phone call to assess the situation, and try to provide emergency care as soon as possible. Then, we will schedule the patient the next day for proper treatment.
What can I do to manage severe tooth pain at home until my appointment?
This is a very good question. It depends on the situation. If you have decay for a while and now have a toothache, very likely the nerve is affected or infected. In that case, you can use painkillers, for example, 600 or 800 mg of ibuprofen or 500 mg of Tylenol. Just remember to take those medications after meals. If you don't have cavities or you see the dentist regularly and never knew you had decay, it could be a tooth fracture when the fracture goes into the nerve or root. With this type of toothache, you can take ibuprofen or Tylenol to help. If you don't have decay or don't grind your teeth, you may not have a tooth fracture risk. For senior people, with severe toothache, you may need to be alert as sometimes early symptoms of a heart attack can be toothache. In that case, I would probably recommend taking Tylenol or going to see emergency services because if it's a heart attack, it cannot be delayed. That's why for young people, decay or tooth fractures could be more common, but for older senior people, especially with heart disease, you need to be careful as toothache can be early symptoms of a heart attack. In that case, go to see emergency or urgent care, which is very important. If it's a tooth abscess, take ibuprofen or Tylenol. Additionally, for infection or abscess-related toothache or deep decay-related toothache, you can use warm salt water, holding it for one or two minutes to help reduce infection and control the toothache. This works well if you alternate ibuprofen and Tylenol to reduce side effects. For example, you can take 600 mg of ibuprofen every three hours, followed by 500 mg of Tylenol, and then after another three hours, take ibuprofen again, alternating every three hours. This way, you may get the best control over tooth pain at home.