Emergency Care: Does Your Dental Injury Need Emergency Services?

Emergency Care Dentist Chippewa Falls

It is important to understand what type of dental injury requires emergency assistance. This ensures that your teeth, as well as your family member teeth, are cared for correctly. An accident can happen at any time and while some oral injuries require immediate treatment, others do not. By learning more about what type of injuries constitute emergency care, you can make the right decision at the time of the injury.

Common Mouth Injuries

Common injuries to the mouth can cause teeth to crack or break as well as being knocked out. Such injuries that can cause issues with the teeth include sports injury, biting down on hard food or candy, a fall, etc. The severity of the injury and where the tooth is located will be the deciding factor as to whether or not you should contact the dentist immediately or wait until normal office hours.

Immediate medical assistance should be provided if the tooth has a severe crack, a large missing piece or knocked out all the way. Medical attention will need to be given so that the tooth can hopefully be saved. If the tooth has fallen out, see if it can be placed back in the socket. Using gauze that has been wet to bite down on the tooth after it has been placed in the socket can help.

If you are unable to place a knocked-out tooth in the socket, rinse it off and place it in a container with your saliva or milk. This will help to protect the tooth. A wet compress can stop any bleeding that may occur in the open socket.

Another instance where you may feel the need to visit the dentist immediately is with pain. If you have tooth pain that is severe, you may have the option to visit the dentist for emergency care. Often, an abscessed tooth can create extreme pain that can be hard to bare. By contacting the dentist office, even after hours, you should be able to reach someone who can help you.

The injury or issue might wait or the dentist will be able to see you take care of the problem. After hours services are the best way to reach the dentist office and determine if care can be provided for your situation.

You may have the option of taking pain medication to alleviate the issue until you can be seen by the dentist.

Avoid the ER if possible. Many patients will visit the ER instead of contacting the dentist office. With emergency after-hours care, you will be provided with the attention you need for your individual issue. At the ER, you may spend hours in the waiting room and the doctor cannot help you with the problem because it is a dental issue.

Contacting the emergency number will put you in touch with experts who can help. Winn Family Dentistry offers quality dental care for patients, even in emergency situations. Contact the office whenever you experience an emergency for quality care.