No matter who you are, you should receive dental cleanings and checkup around two times a year. For those of you with severe issues, you will not be able to wait that long to work out your issues. In fact, some problems are so serious that they need to be dealt with right away.
In these cases, you should head to the dentist as soon as possible. Below, we go over 7 situations where you should consider emergency dental care.
Broken Tooth
One ailment that consistently causes excessive pain is a broken or chipped tooth. They usually come as the result of receiving a tremendous amount of force to your face and mouth. This is often caused by playing sports, falling, or getting into a fight. What you can do right away is rinse your mouth out with saline and take an over the counter pain reliever. After that, you should schedule emergency dental care.
Missing Tooth
Similar to a broken tooth, sometimes having an accident will knock your tooth out entirely. Not only is this incredibly painful, but it is also unattractive and leads to a significant amount of bleeding. You likely cannot wait even one day to get this treated, so it is best to go to the dentist as soon as possible. They may not fix your missing tooth right away, but they will stabilize the situation and discuss your treatment options with you.
Missing Filling or Crown
Some patients think that because fillings and crowns are synthetic, losing them is not as much of an emergency as losing a tooth. This is actually not the case. When you lose a filling or crown, you put your oral health at tremendous risk. The first thing you should do is try to locate the lost item. If you do, your dentist may be able to put it back in for you rather than starting over new. After looking for it, you should contact a dentist.
Severe Toothache
Though a toothache sounds like a minor issue, there is a wide range of pain levels that you might feel. On the lower end, you can get by for a few days dealing with the pain before seeing a dentist. On the upper end, the pain will be so excruciating that you cannot eat or sleep. If you are feeling the kind of excessive pain that significantly decreases your quality of life, it is worth fixing right away.
Excessive Bleeding
If you haven’t flossed for a while, you will likely experience minor bleeding when you do. Similarly, if you get a new toothbrush that is especially hard, you could see a small amount of blood. These situations are not emergencies, nor are they reasons to see the dentist at all.
That being said, there is a level of bleeding that is cause for concern because it is indicative of a severe infection. If you experience an extreme level of bleeding, you should consider emergency dental service.
Abscessed Tooth
An abscess is defined as a pocket of puss that surrounds the root of your tooth. It comes as a result of three common culprits: Cavities, gum disease, and cracked teeth. The trouble with abscessed teeth is that they are not easy to recognize.
The reason is that the puss is on the inside only, and is not visible to the naked eye. Some symptoms that can act as clues are tooth pain, gum swelling, gum redness, and a bad taste in your mouth.
Exposed Nerves
The nerves in our mouth play an essential role, but when they are exposed, you will wish that you never had them. What they do when exposed is cause excruciating pain that will not go away until they are covered up again.
A quick fix that is sometimes recommended is covering the nerve up with a piece of sugar-free gum. Still, that is only a temporary solution. The best thing you can do to solve your issue is obtaining emergency dental care.
Nobody ever wants to experience a severe dental issue, but they are sometimes inevitable. Because of this, it is useful to know when you need treatment right away, and when you can wait. If you lose a tooth, notice excessive bleeding, expose a nerve, or experience any other ailment on this list, you should seek emergency dental care as soon as possible.
