When Emergency Dentistry Is Necessary

As with every other area of your health, emergencies can crop up with your dental health. From toothaches to knocked-out teeth, there are times when emergency dentistry is your best solution for preserving your dental health.

The team here at Hillsdale Dental Care, led by Drs. Magdalena Azzarelli and Roge Jacob, recognizes that dental emergencies can happen more frequently than you’d like, which is why we make ourselves available through prompt care.

If you’re debating whether or not your dental problem is an emergency, here are some of the more common problems we treat through emergency dentistry.

Tooth pain

Let’s start with a fairly common problem — toothaches. Toothaches can occur for many reasons and at any age. For example, when your child’s first baby teeth start coming in, they may experience some discomfort. While this is perfectly normal, if your child has a toothache that lasts for more than a day or two, we should take a look to make sure there aren’t any infections or problems with eruption.

For those in your family who have their permanent teeth and tooth pain develops, this is usually a sign of a brewing infection in their teeth or gums. It’s very important that you come see us straight away so we can identify and remedy the source of the pain before infection takes hold and spreads.

Knocked-out tooth

Whether a baby tooth or a permanent tooth has been knocked out, emergency dentistry can make all the difference.

If you or your child has lost a tooth, your first steps are important and include:

• Retrieving the tooth (handling it only by the crown)
• Rinsing it with water only
• Rinsing your mouth with water
• Putting the tooth back into the socket
• Calling us

If the tooth doesn’t slide back into the socket easily, preserve it in a glass of milk or saliva. 

If you have children, we recommend that you keep a specialized first-aid kit on hand, more specifically Save-A-Tooth®.

By taking quick action and seeing us as soon as possible, it’s very possible that we can save the tooth, which is always the best solution.

Cracked or chipped teeth

If you or your child has a cracked or chipped tooth, whether it’s painful or not, it’s always a good idea to have us address the problem straight away so that we can avoid further damage and/or an infection.

Issues with dental work

If someone in your family has an issue with dental work, such as a filling that comes out or braces that have broken, please come see us at your earliest convenience. Broken braces can wreak havoc on the oral soft tissues. and missing fillings are an open invitation for bacteria to get back inside the tooth.

This list of common dental emergencies isn’t complete, but it gives you an idea of the types of problems that can benefit from our emergency dentistry care.

If you’re still undecided as to whether you’re dealing with an emergency or not, please contact our office in San Jose, California, for guidance.