Hello again Red Bank! Welcome back to the ongoing dental health blog of Denise DiBona, DDS. Today we want to cover a topic which could save your teeth: handling a dental emergency.

If you were in a car accident and broke your arm, you’d know to call 911. But what if the airbag of a car caused you to chip your tooth? We want you to have that same feeling of safety and convenience when it comes a handling a dental emergency. If you’re currently suffering a dental emergency, you should call us right away at 732-945-5343.

Even if your emergency happens after hours, or during the weekend, calling our hotline will connect you with a member of our staff. We offer same-day emergency appointments to relieve your pain and get you smiling again. If your dental emergency is life-threatening, you should call 911.

We treat emergency patients with a variety of issues; including loose tooth or teeth; patients with a chipped or broken tooth; patients with a knocked-out tooth; and patients suffering from an abscess, infection, or severe dental pain.

But there are a number of things you can do to provide temporary relief if you’re experiencing a dental emergency. Here is some advice for three of the most traumatic dental emergencies.

Severe Dental Pain

Do not ignore toothaches, they are your mouth’s way of telling your brain that something is wrong with your teeth. If the underlying cause of a toothache is left untreated, it will only get worse with time.

Severe dental pain can be caused by tooth decay and seem to come in the form of a toothache. Rinsing with warm water can help provide temporary pain relief; make sure you are using warm water, and not hot water.

You will want to avoid exposing your teeth to hot and cold beverages and food, as they can increase your pain. Another option is to take an over-the-counter pain reliever such as Tylenol or ibuprofen. You should avoid aspirin because it will thin your blood, which could cause you to bleed during a dental procedure.

Knocked-Out Tooth

If you’ve had a tooth (or part of a tooth) knocked-out, you will need to act very quickly to save the tooth. If you can reach our appointment on the same-day as the tooth being knocked-out, we may be able to save the tooth and put it back in your mouth. So be sure and call us at 732-945-5343.

If at all possible, you should try and save the tooth. You should only handle the tooth by its crown (the top-portion) and avoiding touching the root of the tooth, as well as any tissue or nerves still attached to the tooth. You should then the tooth by gently rinsing it under running water; take great care to ensure that roots and nerves remain attached to it.

You should then place the tooth in a sealed container of salt water and milk. This can all the tooth remain alive for several hours. If you are able to a pharmacy, you should purchase a container of Save-A-Tooth. This product can keep the tooth alive for up to a day.

Missing Filling

If you’ve lost a filling you do not need to worry about saving the filling, unless it is constructed out of porcelain or gold. Anagram fillings and composite resin filling cannot generally be reused.

If you’ve swallowed the filling, it will likely pass through your system without issue. If you believe you may have breathed the filling into your lungs, you should contact your doctor. A filling in your lung can cause it to become filled with fluid and/or infected.

Take care of the affected tooth, by gently cleaning the area where the filling was. Be sure and keep all food and debris out of the cavity. You may want to consider using Dentemp or another temporary cavity filling material to prevent items from entering the cavity. Take Tylenol or another non-aspirin over-the-counter medication for pain.

Make An Appointment

You can call our office at 732-945-5343 to make an appoint for emergency dental care. You can also click here to make an appointment at the office of Denise DiBona, DDS in Red Bank, NJ.