No one wants to experience an emergency situation. But when one spring up, it’s best if you know how to handle it. That means dialing 911 for a medical emergency. That means calling your car insurance company for an auto emergency.
But what do you do if a dental emergency occurs? At Sanders Family Dental in Mansfield, TX, we’ve been handling dental emergencies for years. So we put together this quick guide to handling dental emergencies. Just follow these four steps:
Step #1: Plan for an Emergency
When it comes to dental emergencies, it’s best to follow the Boy Scouts’ advice and be prepared. That means saving our phone number, 817-779-7111, into your cell phone so you don’t have to waste time looking it up in case of an emergency. You may also want to bookmark this page on your mobile browser from easy reference.
It’s also good idea to put together a dental emergency kit. Putting together a dental first aid kit is an inexpensive way to relieve your pain and possibly save your smile. We recommend filling your kit with tweezers, sterile gauze, aspirin-free pain relievers, a sealable container, over-the-counter dental cement, and a product called Save-A-Tooth.
Step #2: Call for Help
First assess your dental emergency. If your emergency is life-threatening, or you’re bleeding a great deal, call 911 or get to the nearest hospital. If you dental emergency is non-life-threatening, then call our office right away. Even if you’re not sure if its an emergency, if you’re in pain, you should call our office right away at 817-779-7111.
When you call our office, we’ll provide you with advice for handling your dental emergency. If needed we can often schedule an emergency dentist appointment on the same-day you call our office. If you call us after business hours, we can connect you to an on-call staff member. We can generally schedule an appointment within the next 24 hours, even on weekends!
Step #3: Take Smart Steps to Reduce Your Pain
Our staff can provide you with precise instructions, but it’s generally a good idea to keep a few simple tips in mind when handling a dental emergency. These simple steps cannot only relieve your pain, they might even be able to save your tooth!
If you’ve had a tooth knocked out, save the tooth! Rinse the tooth in warm water but keep any tissue attached to the tooth. Then place the tooth in a container of milk or a product called Save-A-Tooth. Then bring the tooth to our office. If you get to our office quickly enough, we may be able to reinsert your tooth.
If you’ve broken a tooth, retain any loose fragments of the tooth. Place them in a sealed container and bring them to our office. In the interim you can use sterile gaze to stop the bleeding. You may also want to cover any sharp edges of the tooth with gauze to prevent damage to the inside of your mouth. Then take an aspirin-free pain reliever for any lingering pain.
If you’ve had a dental crown or dental bridge come loose, or even fall out, you’ll want to schedule an appointment right away. Save the dental appliance and rinse it under water. You’ll need to bring it with you to our office. You can also attempt to temporarily put the appliance make in place with over-the-counter dental cement. But even if you’re successful in putting it back into place, get to our office as soon as possible.
If you’ve lost a filling, you don’t need to worry about bringing the filling to our office as they generally cannot be reused. Until you get to our office you can chew some sugar-free gum and place it in the cavity. This can often prevent pain on a short-term basis.
Step #4: Come Into Our Office
But the most important step is quite simply to get to our office after scheduling an appointment. At Sanders Family Dental we’re proud to offer emergency dentist appointments to the residents of Mansfield, TX, and the surrounding area. So call us today at 817-779-7111 of you’re experiencing a dental emergency. If your situation is not an emergency, you can also reach our office via this online form.