What is an emergency dentist?

Any type of pain or damage involving the mouth can constitute a dental emergency. However, not all injuries will warrant a trip to Accident & Emergency, and if they do, you might be waiting a while behind patients with life-threatening conditions. This is where the emergency dentist comes in handy, they specfically treat dental problems, injuries to the teeth and jaw, as well as soft tissue lacerations to the cheeks and tongue. The clinics are usually open every hour of everyday, even Christmas day, because accidents can happen at a moments notices, and A&E aren’t always equipped to deal with dental emergencies.

I’ve got toothache, is it an emergency?

Not necessarily, it depends how severe the pain is. A reaction to hot or cold temperatures might just be a sign of sensitive teeth and you could swap your toothpaste to a specialist one that rebuilds the enamel to protect the roots. However, if the pain is persistent and at a high level – i.e. it can’t be ignored and doesn’t respond to over the counter medication – then it’s best to have a dental professional take a look.

Other circumstances that call for immediate attention might not be painful at first, but chips and cracks can cause problems in the future. Of course, you won’t be in any doubt that you need to see the dentist if you’ve knocked out a tooth or there is significant bleeding from your gums, but fractures and chips are likely to go unnoticed until the problem has developed further. If you have suffered a blow to the face or you have re-occurring, unexplained toothache, go to the emergency surgery whether you are in a large amount of pain or not – there could be underlying problems that need treatment. Surface fractures won’t appear unless you are given an x-ray, and can develop into deeper cracks that are more difficult to treat.

I’ve damaged my teeth, can the emergency dentist help me?

Almost certainly, the Pearl Dental Clinic has a twenty-four hour surgery that welcomes patients with every kind of dental problem imaginable. The results will depend on the extent of the damage, as well as the skill of the dentist and your own expectations – although most patients are pleasantly surprised with the outcome of their treatment.

The solution to most dental problems is directly related to what caused them in the first place, for example, the treatment for a tooth that has broken because of decay will probably be more intricate than that of a healthy tooth that has been knocked out as a result of sudden impact. Patients who leave their teeth to rot and then head to the surgery may find that they have further complications thanks to disregarding oral hygiene – infection is difficult to treat, and knocked-out or extruded (twisted) teeth are much less likely to reattach to diseased gums.

Should I make an appointment if it’s only a chip?

If you have chipped a tooth or you can see a hairline fracture on the surface, it might not occur to you to have this treated, but a small chip or thin crack can develop into a deeper fissure that compromises the entire tooth. You probably won’t feel too much pain with damage to the enamel, but it’s an easy problem to fix as long as you address it in a timely fashion. Your dentist should be able to repair a chip with some composite bonding, and they can fills shallow cracks with filling material to stop them spreading deeper.

Sometimes, what can look like a fairly harmless crack in your teeth can be a painful bout of toothache just waiting to happen. If it’s left to deepen – or you just ignore the pain from the start – the inner pulp of the tooth will be exposed to bacteria from food, drink, and saliva, this is what causes that throbbing pain. At this stage, it’s likely that the only option will be to perform a root canal treatment, this means scraping out the nerves inside the pulp chamber and filling it in to stop the infection from spreading. If the damage is too severe, the tooth may have to be extracted before it infects the other teeth and the gums.

 What if I can’t get to a clinic right away?

Most emergency dentists will be able to fit you in within twenty-four hours of you making contact, but fate can sometimes intervene and make life difficult. Traffic jams, breakdowns, travel sickness – they’ve all been know to hold up patients on their way to the clinic, along with many other weird and wonderful excuses. If you find yourself stuck in traffic, let a team member know that you’re on your way and you’ll be there as soon as possible. In the mean time, you can help yourself out a little bit by stemming any heavy bleeding, keeping hold of knocked-out or broken teeth – your dentist may be able to rebuild them, and taking over the counter medication to help with pain. It’s important to stay calm in any type of emergency, getting hysterical or out of control won’t help at all, so take a deep breath and tell yourself that there are lots of ways to fix dental problems, thanks to medical technology. The clinic will have seen your situation before, no doubt, and they will reassure you that you’re in the best hands.