Ouch! If You Have Tooth Pain Call an Emergency Dentist

You never know when you will need an emergency dentist. A dental emergency, as with any health emergency can strike at any time and without warning. For some people, they will feel a moderate level of pain that all of a sudden escalates into unbearable tooth pain. For others, they need an emergency dentist after being in an accident. Regardless of when or why you need a dentist, we are available to help.

Two common reasons for needing an emergency dentist are injuring a tooth while playing sports or getting into an accident. According to the American Dental Association, the majority of adult tooth injuries are due to playing sports. Most adults don't have the time to play in an organized league so the likelihood of your tooth getting injured during a neighborhood game of basketball is actually fairly high. You can reduce your risk by keeping your teeth healthy in the first place or wearing a mouth guard while you play.

If your tooth was injured in a car accident or on the job, there typically isn't much you can do to prevent it. Scheduling regular dental exams and teeth cleanings will help your teeth to be healthy enough to withstand damage but there is no guarantee that your tooth won't become cracked, chipped, or even fall out during an accident. If this happens to you after business hours or on the weekend, you need to call a 24-hour dentist.

Many people make the mistake of thinking that the emergency room staff can treat tooth injuries. They can't and don't because they are trained in how to treat the rest of your body, but not in how to treat your teeth. This is why you need to visit a doctor of dentistry, not just a medical doctor. In fact, if you go to the ER, they will direct you to an emergency dentist instead.As a 24-hour dentist, you can call us at any time day or night.

We can provide the immediate relief you need when the pain becomes unbearable or restore your tooth after an accident. If your tooth has fallen out it is extremely important to see a dentist right away because we may be able to save it. Waiting until the morning is not an option when you are trying to do so. Instead, find your tooth, rinse it off and put it into a glass of milk. Once you get to our office, we will see if the tooth can be saved. If not, we will make other recommendations for replacing it such as installing a dental bridge or dental implants.

Likewise, if your tooth is in major pain, you can call our dentist office. We will examine your mouth and determine the reason you are experiencing pain before making treatment recommendations. By restoring your damaged tooth or treating an infection, we can correct your dental problems and help you to feel better in no time.

Cosmetic Dentistry  >  Oral Surgery

I Need an Emergency Dentist Near Me. Can You Help?

If you have thought, I need an emergency dentist near me, you have already taken the first step toward getting the care you need. Most people do not consider an emergency dentist until they wake up with a sudden toothache or chip a tooth during a weekend softball game. Once the discomfort starts or the damage has been done, it is difficult to think clearly, and most people end up visiting the emergency room as a result. While they can help to stop the bleeding or give you pain medication, they are not trained in how to treat or restore teeth we are. As such, we highly recommend you add our phone number to your contacts and call us in an emergency situation.

We are available to treat you outside normal business hours, so you do not need to live with discomfort. This can help you to get past your situation and back to your normal routine in a hurry. While we welcome your calls, we also want to encourage you to take steps to avoid an emergency in the first place. While most people think of our services after a major, traumatic event like a car wreck, we have found that routine activities are often what lead to a dental emergency. With that in mind, here are a few habits you should avoid.

Opening things with your teeth. We have gotten many calls from people saying, "I need an emergency dentist near me to treat my chipped tooth." Many of these calls come after someone tried to open a bag with their teeth. While your teeth are strong, they have been designed to chew food. You can prevent discomfort and save yourself time by grabbing scissors instead.

Not wearing a mouthguard. Many teeth are damaged while playing sports. A mouthguard is the only real way to protect them, because the guard acts like a barrier, keeping your teeth in place and protected. Otherwise, a flying elbow or runaway ball could knock out an unsuspecting tooth.

Grinding your teeth. This can create the need for an emergency dentist for several reasons. Grinding can cause your natural teeth and restorations to become cracked or chipped. It can also lead to TMJ symptoms like a sore jaw. If you wake up with headaches or jaw and face pain and do not treat the condition, you could wake up unable to open your mouth at all. This will not happen right away, but over time, it is possible. We recommend wearing a night guard to prevent grinding and avoid this possibility.

Chewing on ice. If you have ever bitten down on ice and felt immediate pain, you could have chipped your tooth or worn away the enamel on them. Ice is hard and dangerous for your teeth. Many people have called saying, "I need an emergency dentist near me," after cracking a tooth. This routine activity needs to be avoided.

Regardless of why your tooth hurts or becomes damaged, we can solve the problem and help you to feel better again.

Teeth Whitening  >  Pediatric Dentistry

A Simple How To Find An Emergency Dentist

Wondering how to find an emergency dentist? You would not be alone because every year thousands of people find themselves in exactly the same predicament. Dental accidents happen all the time and usually when we are least expecting them. This leaves the person in a bit of a panic, wondering how to find an emergency dentist. In the case of a child being injured, playing sports, for example, the need to quickly identify and reach out to an emergency dentist becomes even more important. There are several ways you can find an emergency dentist. Our recommendation is to be proactive and start the search before you ever have the need for these kinds of service. There are a few dentists that offer emergency dental treatment but, unlike hospitals, not all dentists are able to offer emergency medical treatment. You should start your search by talking to your provider.

If you already have a dentist and they do not provide you with dental care in an emergency situation, they will probably have a recommended dentist that they work with who does. Naturally, if that does not work, you can talk to friends and family about their dentist and seek out the ones that do offer emergency dental care. The other option on how to find an emergency dentist is to do a google search, looking for an emergency dentist. This can be hit and miss sometimes so you will want to actually call the dentist office to find out if they do offer emergency dental services. We recommend you read reviews and testimonials before picking your emergency dentist. This can only be done if you are working proactively to select an emergency dentist before the incident occurs. Once you have identified who your provider is, you will want to make sure that they are covered by your insurance. We recommend writing them down along with their contact information in an emergency contact list. That way when, and if, an emergency dental situation arises, you will not be wasting precious time looking for a provider.

People often wonder what to do in certain emergency dentist situations while they are trying to figure out how to find an emergency dentist. Here are a few tips –

For a severe toothache: Take a recommended dose of an over the counter pain reliever, then rinse your mouth out with warm water. If something is stuck in your teeth, try to extract it gently using floss and without using a sharp object. You can also apply a cold compress if the outside of your mouth is swollen.

A chipped or broken tooth: Find the parts of the tooth, as many as you can, and place them into a container with cool milk. You will want to make sure to stem any bleeding that may be occurring with gauze, placed with light pressure for approximately 10 minutes or until the bleeding stops.

Lost filling: Place a piece of sugarless gum into the cavity as a temporary measure. Do not use gum that has sugar as it will cause you additional pain.

In each of these scenarios, you want to have the number of your emergency dentist handy and reach out to them as soon as you have taken these temporary measures.

Pediatric Dentistry  >  Oral Surgery

What to Expect When Calling an Emergency Dentist

Visiting an emergency dentist is not the same as going in for a regularly scheduled tooth cleaning. It is often something nobody considers, much less plans for, until they are in a situation where they need our services. On the other hand, we deal with dental emergency situations on a daily basis and have come up with a series of protocols, that are designed to streamline the process, so that you can get the care that you need. Our process begins the minute a phone rings, and someone expresses that they may have an emergency. Our goal, during this initial conversation, is to determine what the incident is, diagnose its causes, and give you advice on how best to proceed. You can expect to spend several minutes on the phone which is not to cause you additional distress or discomfort but is to speed up the diagnosis so that we are ready for you when you come in. 

Your emergency care does not begin when you walk into the clinic, it typically begins when you call us which is why it is important for us to get information. We understand that when people call with an emergency they are typically in a lot of pain, caused by a tooth that has been knocked out or is in dire need of a procedure. This is why you will be asked a series of very pointed questions, from which we can get our initial analysis and give you primary directions. If at all possible, we ask that you have someone with you who can take notes and can potentially drive you to the office if we determine that you need to come in and see us immediately. 

Perhaps the most common reason why people call an emergency dentist is because they have been involved in some kind of accident. With the proliferation of sports, unsafe actions by children and numerous spontaneous mishaps occurring daily, it is not surprising that the highest number of calls we get are from people who have experienced  trauma. Our first question is always to determine the scope of the accident and to help you decide if you need to go into an emergency room or come straight to our emergency dentist office. The size, scope, and impact of an accident are all things that need to factor into this decision. 

We also want to know if you are bleeding.  This question is critically important because, in the event of a tooth loss, you may be bleeding to some degree. If the bleeding is heavy, we will recommend that you go to an ER unless you can make it to us in a very short amount of time.  For medium bleeding and light bleeding, we will give you tips on how to slow down or stop the bleeding by using sterile gauze. We will also want to know if the tooth is still attached. If the tooth has been knocked out, we will advise you on how to proceed to protect the tooth itself, if at all possible, so that we can attempt to restore it.