What You Should Know About Emergency Dental Visits
Experiencing dental pain or trauma is a clear sign that you need to visit an emergency dentist to have the problem looked at. This includes any time that a tooth is lost, broken, chipped, or causing you to experience shooting pain.
It is not worth waiting for your normal dentist to see you at their next availability, since the problem can get worse if not treated right away. For instance, broken teeth have the potential to go into your gums, which makes it harder to fix the tooth. Toothaches may be an indication that you have an infection, which can spread to different parts of your mouth and require more extensive treatments.
This is what you should know about visiting an emergency dentist.
What You Can Expect From The Dentist
You'll be asked by the dentist to describe the pain you are experiencing, as well as how the tooth was damaged. If the pain seems like it is related to an infection, the dentist may try making the tooth cold to find out how it alters the pain, which can indicate how bad the infection actually is.
It is common to have x-rays taken of the affected tooth, which will provide a better picture of the problem with the tooth. For infected nerves, you may be given antibiotics and recommended to get a root canal performed. Chipped teeth may only require a cosmetic treatment. Broken teeth may need an implant or bridge to fix the problem.
Each recommended procedure should be accompanied by an explanation as to why that procedure is the best option.
Know How To Prevent Emergency Care
Accidents can happen when you least expect it, but you should know how you can prevent these emergencies from happening in the future. A custom mouth guard is a great way to give protection to your teeth when playing contact sports, but you can also use a standard mouth guard that is found at your local sporting good store or pharmacy.
To avoid infections, keep up with practicing good oral hygiene. Brush two times a day with a toothpaste that contains fluoride, floss each day, and visit your dentist two times each year. Infections are typically caused by small problems that were ignored for far too long.
If you are experiencing a dental emergency, be sure to have an emergency dentist on speed dial that can fix your tooth problem with very little notice.
