No one wakes up expecting to deal with a painful toothache or dental injury, but 1 in 6 Americans will face a dental emergency this year. Do you have a plan in place if this includes you? If not, Carlson Dental Group is happy to give you one: call us! If you have an urgent dental concern, we’ll do everything we can to see you as soon as possible and take care of the problem, so you can get back to your life without delay after emergency dentistry in Jacksonville, FL.
In addition to offering same-day appointments for immediate pain relief, our dental office also has intraoral cameras and digital X-rays that help us quickly and accurately identify a problem as well as figure out the best way to fix it. This helps us minimize a patient’s pain and ensure no long term damage is done to the teeth.
After you contact our dental office, what you do in the meantime before you come to see us could make the difference between saving and losing a tooth. That’s why it’s important you take the right action. Below, you’ll find first-aid tips for some of the most common dental emergencies. And don’t worry, our team will walk you through them over the phone in case you need more assistance.
Learn More About How to Handle Common Dental Emergencies
After rinsing and flossing around the tooth to remove any food debris, if it still hurts, go ahead and take an OTC medication. A warm salt water rinse a few times an hour can take the edge off of any discomfort as well. Use a cold compress for swelling.
Try to recover as many pieces of the tooth that you can and bring them to our dental office. Some slight pressure using gauze or a clean rag should quickly stop any bleeding, and apply a cold compress to manage swelling. Cover the tooth with some sugarless gum or dental wax to prevent a rough edge from injuring the mouth.
You need to come see us within an hour or so of the accident to give us the best chance of replanting the tooth. Find the tooth, pick it up while only touching the crown (upper portion), and rinse it off with water. Place it under the tongue—this will keep the tooth alive so we can restore it later.
After giving the restoration a rinse, attempt to place it back onto the tooth. A small dab of toothpaste should help keep it stable until we can repair it. If the restoration is lost or completely broken, cover the tooth with some dental cement (which you’ll find at your local pharmacy).
Just like with medical emergencies, the cost of urgent dental treatment will be based on the type and severity of a patient’s injury. What’s true for everyone, however, is that acting quickly is the best approach for both your smile and your wallet. Getting immediate attention will enable us to quickly stop any pain and use a more conservative treatment, which will lead to a lower cost. We’re also happy to accept dental insurance and offer flexible financing to make this care more affordable.
Learn More About the Cost of Treating Dental Emergencies
Are you still worried about what you should do if a dental emergency suddenly pops up? It’s understandable; dental emergencies can be confusing and anxiety-inducing. To make your situation less stressful, our team is happy to schedule an emergency appointment and answer your questions over the phone. In the meantime, it may help to read through the answers to some frequently asked questions about dental emergencies.
Generally, toothaches do NOT go away on their own. One of the only exceptions would be if you’re experiencing pain around (not inside) the tooth, such as irritation of the gum tissue surrounding the tooth. Still, you’ll want to schedule an appointment with an emergency dentist just to make sure nothing is wrong.
There are several potential reasons for a toothache, many of which can spell disaster for your tooth if they’re not treated in a timely manner. By seeking treatment right away, you can reduce your risk of needing more invasive (and expensive) procedures down the road.
Unfortunately, most emergency rooms are not equipped with the knowledge, skills, or technology required to effectively handle dental emergencies. In most cases, you’re better off seeing an emergency dentist first.
However, there are three primary exceptions where an ER visit is preferable:
For virtually all other emergency situations, you should visit a dentist first.
Tooth enamel is the hardest material in the human body. However, it is technically inorganic, meaning that it cannot heal on its own. Once a tooth has been chipped, even only slightly, the lost enamel will never regenerate.
In fact, a small chip in a tooth can worsen over time without proper treatment. While the enamel itself cannot be restored, there are many treatments, such as dental crowns, that can protect the tooth from further damage.
If you have an object trapped between your teeth that you can’t remove with dental floss, then it can be tempting to dislodge it with a toothpick. Despite their name, most dentists do NOT recommend using toothpicks. They are generally unsafe, especially if they’re made of wood.
It can be all too easy to scratch your gum tissue or damage your enamel with a toothpick. Not only that, but wooden toothpicks can splinter and break off inside your mouth, causing even more harm. Toothpicks can even result in the opposite of their desired effect by pushing trapped objects further between the teeth or under the gums. You might even accidentally swallow a toothpick, which can be fatal. In short, you should only use a toothpick as a last resort.