Dental emergencies can take many shapes and can arrive when you least expect them. Preparing yourself for a dental emergency can be vital in saving a tooth or your smile and preventing costly dental treatment afterwards. 

The most common dental emergencies are:

• Injured tooth: If you are playing sports, or just happen to have a collision with something or someone and get a fractured tooth, contact a Plano dentist right away. Describe the fracture to your dentist over the phone and seek advice. If the fracture has been restricted to a few millimeters at the edge of your tooth, then reshaping and build up with dental composite will suffice. If the fracture has involved the pulp, then root canal treatment and dental crowns will be needed. Pain killers can help control the pain until you reach the dentist’s clinic. Dental veneers can also help mask fractures in teeth. Visit your cosmetic dentist in Plano, Texas for further information.
• Knocked out tooth: Sometimes severe collisions can partially or completely dislodge a tooth from its socket. If you have completely removed a tooth, try to take the tooth and rinse it off in slow moving water, or a glass of cold milk. Alternatively, you can store it in the patient’s cheek. It is important to not handle the tooth any more than necessary. Don’t ever rub, clean or touch the roots if you can avoid it.   Visit your DDS in Allen, TX immediately. Bite hard on piece of cotton gauze after washing your mouth to control the bleeding. The dentist will replace the tooth and place splints to promote healing. Once the tooth has stabilized, a root canal will be needed.

A partially knocked out tooth should be pushed back onto the socket in the correct position. If you are unable to reposition the tooth, avoid applying too much pressure and visit your dentist immediately. Take some pain killers to reduce the pain.

• Severe pain: Nerves are directly affected during a situation like this, so remember that hot and cold drinks will cause pain. 

Use dental floss or toothpick to dislodge the food particle. Wash your mouth with warm salt water intermittently to reduce pain. Painkillers (e.g. ibuprofen) can also help control pain. Place an ice pack on your cheeks for 10-20 minutes per hour when the pain becomes severe. Zinc oxide eugenol temporary filling material available at your local pharmacist can be used to stop irritation of the pulp. The eugenol (clove oil) within the filling material acts as a sedative. Alternatively, cotton balls soaked in clove oil can be pushed into the tooth to help reduce pain. If the filling has been dislodged, try to retrieve the lost filling and replace it back into its original position. If it is not staying in position, apply petroleum jelly to the filling and try again. Visit your periodontist in Houston, TX at the earliest available appointment.

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