What Qualifies as a Dental Emergency?
Situations where professional dental care and treatment are required immediately qualify as a Dental emergency. These emergencies are prominently caused by accidents or injuries to the face leading to severe pain and damage to teeth, gums and jawbone. Minor dental problems like cavities, small cracks in teeth, developing abscesses, and infections when not treated promptly can also turn into dental emergencies. Emergency dentists are trained professionals who handle these cases and perform emergency treatments to provide immediate pain relief.
Dental emergencies require immediate treatment because they cause sharp pain and can cause serious damage to your oral health. Immediate treatment in emergency cases increases the chances of saving your natural teeth. If you are also experiencing constant sharp pain, severe swelling in your gums and heavy bleeding from your teeth, you need to contact the emergency helpline as soon as possible.
Dental Conditions that fall in the category of Dental emergencies are:
- Severe Pain and Sensitivity
- Knocked Out Teeth or Severely Decayed Teeth
- Significant Swelling of Gums
- Heavy Bleeding from Teeth and Gums
- Facial Injury and Trauma causing damage to teeth and jawbone
- Cracked or Fractured Teeth
- Bad Wisdom Tooth growth
What to do in a Dental Emergency
Emergency Dentists in the USA are generally available 24/7 but in some cases, the help may take some time to come depending on your location. While help is on the way, do not attempt to treat the symptoms yourself without professional guidance. Until the help arrives use a cold compress on the affected area or take pain relief medication. Tramadol when combined with acetaminophen can help in effectively relieving dental pain, however, before you buy tramadol online get a prescription from a licenced medical professional and only use it under professional supervision.
Immediate action during a Dental emergency can prevent further damage and increase the chances of saving your natural teeth. If you are experiencing severe unbearable pain after a facial injury, contact your dentist as soon as possible or call the emergency helpline. Ignoring these symptoms can increase the damage and you may lose your natural teeth.
What can cause a Dental Emergency?
These following situations may result in a Dental Emergency.
Trauma and Accidental Injuries: Traumas or accidents are the leading cause of dental emergencies that result in cracked teeth or fractured jaws. These injuries to the teeth and jaws required immediate treatment to save the natural teeth. The most common reasons for these traumas are sports injuries, traffic accidents or accidental falls.
Untreated Oral Infection: Minor oral infections when left untreated can spread from teeth to the gums or neighbouring teeth. Slowly the infections grow stronger with more bacteria and germs accumulating in the teeth leading to sharp pain, sensitivity and tooth decay in the worst case. That is why regular visits are often recommended to detect these dental problems in the early stages.
Wisdom Teeth: In some cases, wisdom teeth can prove to be a dental emergency. Improper growth of wisdom teeth leads to severe pain, discomfort and high fever.
Abscesses: Dental abscesses are collections of infected pus that can affect oral health and cause pain. They require immediate treatment because if left untreated they can spread to other parts of the mouth leading to dental emergencies.
Malfunction of Oral Appliances: Oral appliances like dentures, braces, bridges and dental implants can be damaged while chewing hard and sticky food or during other physical activities. This malfunction of oral appliances can injure neighbouring teeth or gums causing dental emergencies that require rapid treatment.
Failed Dental Procedures: Dental procedures are complex and minor mistakes or carelessness during the treatment can lead to complications. These complications are also considered dental emergencies because they require immediate treatment and leaving them untreated can cause severe dental problems.
Contacting an emergency dentist in the early stage can help you avoid severe consequences and can save your natural teeth. By saving your natural teeth, emergency dentists ensure that you won’t require expensive dental treatments in the future.
Procedures performed by Emergency Dentists
Emergency dentists are specially trained to treat emergency cases and provide immediate pain relief. They are also trained to perform multiple dental procedures and can provide effective and immediate relief in dental emergencies. Emergency dentists are available 24×7 all week without the need for an appointment.
Dental procedures performed by an Emergency Dentist are listed below:
Root Canal Treatment: Infected pulp in teeth can cause severe pain and sensitivity. When ignored, this infected pulp can spread to neighbouring teeth or gums, leading to tooth decay and gum disease. The emergency dentist removes this infected pulp by performing Root canal treatment without removing the natural teeth.
Repairing broken and fractured teeth: An accident or facial trauma can lead to broken or fractured teeth and unlike bones, our teeth cannot heal themselves. An emergency dentist will use tooth filling as an adhesive to repair the fractured teeth and prevent further damage.
Jaw bone surgery: An emergency dentist performs jaw bone surgery to relieve pain and prevent further damage, after that they will refer you to an oral surgeon for specialised treatment.
Adjusting misplaced Dental fillings: Misplaced or misaligned dental fillings can cause discomfort while eating and may lead to sensitivity. Emergency dentists are trained to adjust the misplaced filling and they can also replace a missing tooth filling.
Extracting Damaged or Decayed tooth: When your tooth is decayed beyond repair it can cause pain and discomfort while eating or performing daily activities. Bad oral health, ignoring early decay signs or an abscess infection can damage the tooth beyond repair. Removing these decayed teeth relieves pain and improves oral hygiene and later a dental implant or a bridge is used to replace the extracted tooth.
Emergency Dental Treatment will cost you more?
The simple answer to this question is Yes, an emergency dental treatment will cost you more. However, these emergency treatments are very cost-effective because they save you from potentially expensive treatment by saving your natural teeth. Emergency dentists also charge more depending on the working hours and the severity of the case. The main goal of emergency treatment is pain relief and preventing the damage from spreading further. In more severe cases, you should get a specialised treatment to restore oral health completely. These emergency treatments also require special equipment and resources because of the severity of cases.
How You Can Prevent Dental Emergencies
The leading cause of Dental emergencies is accidental traumas and injuries during sports events, and traffic accidents. You cannot foresee accidents or prevent them from happening but there are other factors that you can control to prevent dental emergencies.
Using a Mouthguard: To prevent accidental injuries and trauma during a sports activity you can use Mouthguards. These guards are easily available at sports shops or medical stores and for perfect fitting, you can get a custom-made mouthguard from a dentist. Mouthguards are made from durable thermostatic material that protects your teeth and jaw by absorbing the impact and force.
Frequent dental checkups: Visiting the dental clinic frequently helps to detect dental problems in the early stage. This early-stage detection prevents the damage from spreading further. Frequent dental checkups reduce the possibility of tooth decay by detecting the root cause early on.
Taking care of your oral health: Taking care of your oral health ensures healthy teeth and gums that are infection-free and strong. Healthy and strong teeth reduce the risk of infections and oral diseases which in turn prevents dental emergency situations. You can take care of your oral health with the help of healthy oral habits like brushing, flossing and having a balanced diet.
Why Choose Emergency Dentists of Dentis Healthcare
There are many reasons for choosing Dentis Healthcare in dental emergency services:
Availability: Dentis Healthcare has more than 900 clinics with 1500+ doctors available for multiple dental procedures.
Experienced and Specialised professionals: Our emergency dentists in the USA are trained professionals who can perform emergency dental services like root canals, tooth extraction, repairing fractured teeth and many more.
Well Equipped Facility: Emergency dental situations require special resources and facilities to treat severe cases. We have technologically advanced labs where we strictly follow the 4-step sterilisation process to clean equipment and remove bacteria and viruses.
Painless Treatment: With the help of our technologically advanced system and experienced doctors we provide almost pain-free treatments.
Personalised aftercare Instructions: We believe that the actual duties of a Dentist also include guiding patients towards better oral health. That’s why our dentists also provide personalised aftercare instructions that benefit you in the long run.
Safe and Secure Treatment: Your safety is our top priority which is why our staff are well-trained in PPE(personal protective equipment) training to ensure safe use of equipment.
Conclusion
Emergency dentists are specialised in handling situations where the dental condition of a patient is severe and treatment is needed immediately. Accidental injury is the leading cause of dental emergencies, but extremely poor oral health and ignored dental problems also lead to similar situations. Emergency dentists focus on providing immediate pain relief and preventing further damage to your teeth and jaws.
Frequent dental visits can prevent some dental emergencies caused by extremely poor oral health and ignored dental problems. These visits help in detecting dental problems in the early stage and prevent them from becoming severe. If you are also experiencing unbearable sharp pain in your teeth or your gums are swollen, contact the emergency helpline to get treatment as soon as possible.
FAQs
Severe toothache, teeth or jaw fracture, accidental facial injuries, abscess, infected pulp in teeth, swollen gums and chipped or cracked teeth are some examples of Dental Emergencies.
Accidental injuries to the face are one of the leading causes of Dental Emergencies. Other than that ignored dental problems, extremely poor oral health and dental appliance malfunction can lead to dental emergencies.
Yes, lost or misaligned fillings can lead to tooth decay and cavities which can cause sharp pain and sensitivity. A misaligned filling can affect your bite causing discomfort while eating.
Take prescribed medicines, rinse your mouth with warm salt water and use a cold compress on the affected area. Do not attempt to treat the dental problem at home and wait for professional help.
Yes, emergency dentists are specialised dentists who can perform emergency root canal treatment to provide immediate pain relief and save your natural teeth.
Yes, fractured teeth can lead to the accumulation of germs and bacteria which leads to tooth decay. Contact the emergency helpline and get dental fillings treatment to save your teeth from further damage.
Mild toothaches are not dental emergencies and they can treated with oral care at home. However, if the pain is severe and persistent then you might need to get an immediate treatment.