Emergency dental care – how to deal with one

A dental emergency is when you are experiencing extreme pain, tenderness or discomfort in and around your oral cavity. It may be anything such as a painful swelling around your tooth or the one outside your mouth around your neck. It may be because of excruciating pain in your oral cavity, a knocked out tooth and even a painless swelling in or around your mouth which is gradually increasing in size.

But remember, if you have been in an accident, it is not a dental emergency but a medical one and you should head to the medical emergency ward at once.

A dental emergency is not something which you can really deal with and should be best left to your dentist. However, there are some measures which you can take to reduce the discomfort in the meantime your dentist at Bello Dental takes a look at you.

If you have pain and tenderness, over the counter analgesics can be taken to reduce the pain. But in case of swelling, never apply hot fomentation to the area since it will only aggravate the problem. Cold compress on the other hand is effective in reducing the swelling and also numbs the pain thereby providing temporary relief. Use of aspirin at the site of pain may also provide some relief but make sure that you don’t keep it in contact with your oral mucosa for long since it can cause tissue burn. Clove oil is also slow though effective in reducing toothache.

Always try to wash your knocked out tooth by potable water but never try to scrub it at all since doing so will remove root fibers from the tooth and hinder the reattachment process. Try to keep the tooth below your tongue in your oral cavity to keep it hydrated. However, in case of child patient, it is best to keep it in a normal saline solution, milk or potable water since the child might swallow it and choke on it. If the milk tooth has been knocked out, don’t try to force it in the socket since the pressure might damage the permanent erupting tooth.

If you feel that any of the above has dislodged, don’t swallow and spit it out of your mouth to prevent choking on them. Crowns, bridges and brackets should be preserved for re-cementation while fillings will have to be replaced. In the meantime you can prevent contamination of the cavity by filling it with chewing gum but make sure that it is sugar free or else you will experience sensitivity in the tooth.

If the initial caries on the tooth is not removed, it progresses onto reach the innermost part of the tooth i.e. pulp. Pulp is the nerve and blood supply of the tooth and the bacteria in the caries derive their nutrition from the blood, rapidly increasing in number and causing tissue degeneration and infection. the infection leads to formation of pus and therefore abscess which may cause swelling anywhere near the tooth or even outside the mouth. Not only the bacterial infection is an emergency but also, the swelling may interfere with breathing and swallowing if it increases too much in size. So, make an appointment with your dentist at Bello Dental immediately if you encounter such a situation. You may need to get tooth extraction done or a root canal treatment which will be decided by your dentist only after an oral examination which will inevitably include taking radiographs.

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