Happy holidays Mansfield! Welcome back to the ongoing dental health blog of Sanders Family Dental. We hope the holiday season is treating you well and hasn’t felt too hectic. There’s so much going on during the holiday season: shopping, gift exchanges, time with friends and family.
About the last thing you want to deal with during the holidays is an emergency. An emergency can seem incredibly overwhelming, but generally you know where to turn. Medical care is just a phone call away if you dial 911. If you get into a car accident, you know to call your insurance company.
But what do you do if you’re having a dental emergency? At Sanders Family Dental in Mansfield, TX, we want our patients to know that they can contact us whenever they’re having a dental emergency. We can often offer same-day appointments, or see you within the next 24 hours, even on weekends!
So your first step in preparing for a dental emergency is to save our phone number. Write it down or save it in your smartphone: 817-779-7111. You can call our office after business hours to get the number for our on-call staff member. One of our staff members is always available to assist you during a dental emergency.
The next step is to create an emergency dental kit to keep with your first aid kit. Dental emergencies tend to strike without any warning, so it’s best to be prepared. In your dental emergency kit, you’ll need tweezers, over-the-counter dental cement, a sealable container, sanitary gauze, a product called Save-A-Tooth, and a fast-acting pain reliever. (Best to choose a pain reliever that doesn’t contain aspirin.
If you’re currently experiencing a dental emergency, you should call our office at 817-719-7111. (If your emergency is in anyway life-threatening, you should get to a hospital.) After you call our office, take the following steps to handle your dental emergency.
Broken or Knocked-Out Tooth
Knocked-out or broken teeth can cause you a lot of pain. But if you can recover the missing tooth or tooth fragments, we may be able to reinsert the knocked-out tooth or repair the broken tooth. You’ll need to get to our office as soon as possible.
Always handle a loose tooth by the crown; take care to avoid touching the roots of the tooth. If there is any tissue matter attached to the tooth, leave it in place. Store the loose tooth in either Save-A-Tooth or a container filled with milk. This can extend the life of the tooth.
If you are bleeding, use sanitary gauze to stop the bleeding. If your broken tooth is sharp, cover it with gauze to prevent cutting your mouth or lips on it. Take an over-the-counter pain reliever if you are in pain.
Loose Filling, Crown, or Bridge
Dental crowns, fillings, and bridges can sometimes fall-out. This is especially true for older dental appliances. If you recover the loose filling, crown, or bridge, you can attempt to use dental cement or adhesive to put it back in place. This is only a temporary solution, your tooth could become infected if the appliance isn’t permanently secured at our office.
If you can’t get the loose dental appliance to stay in place, put it in a sealed container and bring it to our office. Often times we can sanitize dental crowns or bridges and apply them to your teeth. Loose fillings generally cannot be reused unless they are made out of porcelain or metal. If you experience any pain, take an over-the-counter pain reliever.
Toothache or Other Dental Pain
Toothaches are something that you should take very seriously. Toothaches can affect your ability to eat, your sleep cycle, and other aspects of your daily life. A toothache is often an indication that you have an infected tooth. We can remove infections from teeth if we catch them early enough, but if an infected tooth is left untreated you may need to have it removed.
If you have any swelling, try applying a cold compress to the site of the swelling. You can also try gargling with warm salt water. Take a pain reliever then call our office!
Make An Appointment
Don’t let a dental emergency ruin your holiday season! Make an emergency dental appointment at Sanders Family Dental in Mansfield, TX. You can reach our office at 817-779-7111.