Sometimes teeth sustain damage due to accidents, injuries or just everyday life. These situations are considered dental emergencies and require immediate care to alleviate pain and repair the damage. This can include cracked or chipped teeth, a knocked out tooth, or restorations like crowns, fillings and bridges that have broken.
Knocked Out Tooth
Unlike a cut or broken bone, knocked out teeth don’t heal on their own. When a tooth gets knocked out, it’s considered a emergency dental care Floyds Knobs IN and requires immediate treatment to avoid complications like permanent damage to the nerve and socket.
Whether you or someone you know suffers this injury, you should take the following steps to help a knocked out tooth survive:
Locate and pick up the tooth, but only touch it by its crown (chewing surface). Don’t try to re-implant it – it’s best to wait until you see a dentist or endodontist. Rinse it with milk or water, but don’t scrub it or wrap it in cloth or tissue. Don’t try to push the tooth back into place because you could cause additional damage.
Broken Braces Wire
A broken braces wire or a loose bracket can be quite uncomfortable but is rarely a dental emergency. It may be necessary to take some measures at home to ensure your comfort and protect your gums, cheeks and tongue until you can see the Orthodontist.
Some common fixes include using a cotton swab or pencil eraser to push poking, irritating wires back into the bracket and covering them with orthodontic wax. You can also use nail clippers to trim a protruding wire but only as a last resort and with caution, as it could cut the inside of your mouth or result in you swallowing a small piece.
It is not uncommon for a floating bracket to dislodge or break while you are eating. A quick fix is to sterilise a pair of tweezers and move the broken bracket to an area between two teeth or into the centre of the tooth and cover it with dental wax until you can visit us.
Toothache
Tooth pain is the most common emergency dental care Floyds Knobs IN. It can be caused by a number of things, including tooth decay and cracked teeth. It can also be caused by an injury, such as a knocked-out tooth. If you experience severe tooth pain, contact your dentist immediately.
While emergency rooms can help treat some dental emergencies, such as broken facial bones or bleeding, they cannot do much for a toothache that is caused by an underlying issue. Instead, you should visit a emergency dental care Floyds Knobs IN.
Untreated dental emergencies can become very painful, progress to deep space infections involving contiguous structures of the neck or mediastinum and the face sinuses and brain, and even result in airway compromise. Early diagnosis and treatment are essential to prevent these life-threatening complications. Emergency dentists have the skills and equipment necessary to diagnose and manage these conditions. They are often available during normal office hours and may offer 24-hour services as well.
Broken Restorations
Infections, tooth fractures, displaced crowns and broken fillings are not only painful but can also lead to serious consequences. Dental emergencies almost always get worse if they are left untreated. Untreated infections can spread from the mouth into the contiguous structures of the neck and facial sinuses, leading to life-threatening complications and airway compromise.
Trauma to the teeth and supporting tissues can be caused by a wide variety of causes including physical violence, sports injuries, car accidents and falls. They can lead to problems that require immediate attention such as bleeding, uncontrollable pain and broken facial bones.
Broken restorations can be repaired by placing the remaining portion of the crown back on the tooth or using an over-the-counter dental cement, toothpaste or denture adhesive. If possible, avoid eating or drinking anything that is very hot or cold to prevent further damage to the tooth. See your dentist as soon as possible for further instructions.
