Accidents happen. But accidents don’t always occur when your dentist’s office is open. A dental problem is never fun, and even less so when it’s a dental emergency. If you have a tooth or mouth injury, you may need to act quickly. Not only do you want to get rid of the discomfort, but many dental disorders require prompt attention to heal correctly.
Don’t Gamble With Your Health
Don’t wait around and bear the pain. Reach out to our helpful professionals. At Durham Dental Center in Plainfield, NJ, we’re here for you.
What is a Dental Emergency?
If you question whether or not you need immediate dental care, you probably do. Do not hesitate to contact 911 if you have a serious injury that requires immediate attention. Use your intuition and err on the safe side. Emergency dentistry concerns anything related to stopping immediate pain, stopping bleeding, or saving a tooth or teeth. Our goal is to alleviate pain and perform the treatment to promote and restore dental health as soon as possible.
Some Dental Emergency Examples Are:
- Untreated Dental Decay. Over time, an issue with your teeth will get worse unless treated. If tooth decay reaches the nerve, you’ll definitely notice.
- Metallic Taste in Your Mouth. A filling or crown may have come loose if you taste something metallic. Don’t prolong treatment for too long, or you’ll risk infection or higher cavity risk.
- Tooth Trauma. Broken, loose, or cracked teeth can be painful and bad for your oral health.
Have a Plan in Place
It’s a good idea to know beforehand how to handle an emergency dentistry situation. Help is only a call away at Durham Dental Center. Have our number handy and the numbers of other emergency helplines. Be familiar with our location in Plainfield so that you can get to us quickly when you need help.
What to do if You Have a Dental Emergency
Your teeth can loosen, break, or even come out. Whether you need emergency care because of pain or a cosmetic concern such as a missing tooth, consider our emergency services.
Contact us any time you have questions about a dental issue. Some common dental emergencies include:
Broken, cracked, or loose teeth. When a tooth comes out, the sooner it is treated, the better. When possible, resetting a loose tooth should generally be done within an hour of the injury. Until then, follow these steps:
- If the displaced tooth is whole, make sure you handle the tooth by the crown (the top) and not by the root.
- Rinse it clean without scrubbing it, and place it back into the socket and keep it there until treatment if possible. This can prevent the reattachment cells from dying.
- If it doesn’t go back into the socket, putting the tooth in a cup of warm milk can sometimes keep it in good condition until you reach professional care.
If a portion of your tooth has broken off, keep all the pieces you can locate. See also our broken tooth section of our website.
- Abscess. An abscess is an infection at your tooth root or between your teeth and gums. If left untreated, it can spread throughout your gums, teeth, and other body regions. Contact us as soon as possible if you suspect you have a dental infection. Rinse your mouth with a moderate saltwater solution (half a teaspoon of table salt in eight ounces of water). This can ease the pain and promote healing. Contact us and schedule a time for treatment as soon as possible.
- Toothache. If you have a toothache, you can sometimes wait for non-emergency assistance. Until you get help, here are a few things you can do to mitigate the discomfort:
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- Apply a cold compress
- Take an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory such as Tylenol
- Rinse with saltwater
If the pain may become unbearable, seek treatment. Tooth decay and gum disease are two ailments that require immediate attention.
- Infection or advanced gum disease. Infection can be a dangerous condition in or around your gums and teeth. If you experience swelling, pain, redness, and general discomfort, you may have an infection. An infection warrants emergency dental care. We can help prevent the infection from spreading and causing further problems. Bacteria in the gums cause a severe gum disease known as periodontal disease. The gums that divide the teeth and the gums become inflamed from plaque, tartar, and bacteria buildup. If left untreated, the disease can reach a severe stage, affecting your teeth, gums, and jawbone. The condition can be extremely painful.
Preventing Dental Emergencies
Here are a few precautions to help you avoid a broken, cracked, or displaced tooth:
- Wear a dental guard when playing sports
- Take care when biting into hard or sticky foods, especially hard candy, popcorn, chewing ice
- Use scissors, not your teeth, for cutting tape and opening packaging
See Us for Regular Checkups About Twice per Year
See us regularly for evaluations and teeth cleaning. Regular checkups can help keep the doctor away, preventing minor dental issues from becoming major ones.
The Best Emergency Dental Care in Plainfield, New Jersey
We want you to have healthy, pain-free teeth and gums. Sometimes that requires providing better dental care coverage than your average dentist might have available. Durham Dental Center provides exceptional service. We’ll keep your smile exceptionally beautiful, healthy, and functional.