Dental Emergency: What to do - The Smile Dental Lounge -Dental Clinic Johor Bahru

5 Most Common Dental Emergencies

Have you ever encounter a severe toothache or other dental problem during midnight, holiday or weekend? It is important to understand the differences between common dental problem and real dental emergency that could threaten your health and cost you irreversible damage. Let’s talk about types of dental emergency.

Toothache

Many reason can led to toothache, including caries, crack, infection, pericoronitis (wisdom tooth infection). If the pulp inside the tooth is inflamed (pulpitis), toothache can worsen to severe spontaneous pain and even affect sleep. You can take pain killer and do cold compression to alleviate the discomfort. Depending on the diagnosis, the causative tooth usually require filling, root canal treatment or extraction.

Chipped or fractured tooth

Chips and cracks in the tooth can happen if accidentally biting on hard objects like bone or stones in food. If you grind your teeth at night, the chance of getting cracked tooth is even higher. It is important not to use your teeth as tool to break off a tag on clothing, open a pack of potato chips or even open a bottle. Pain resulting from cracked tooth can be severe if pulp is involved.

Loose or knocked out tooth

In case of fall or accident, frontal impact might cause the tooth becoming loose or fall out. This requires immediate attention. If the tooth is loose, it is important to keep the tooth in the socket to prevent it falling out. Meanwhile, if the tooth is knocked out, you should find the missing tooth and hold the crown part only. Avulsed tooth should be kept in milk to keep the cells on the root surface hydrated. If unavailable, own saliva might be an alternative. Without any delay, you should bring the avulsed tooth to see nearest dentist within 30 minutes to maximize the chance of planting the tooth back.

Soft tissue injury

Soft tissue in the oral cavity such as lips, inside of cheek, gum and tongue are fragile. If they are cut, punctured or tear by accident or biting, you can stop the bleeding by applying gentle pressure. If the laceration is large, it might not be possible without stitching.

During normal office hour, you can call to dental clinic to make an emergency appointment to be seen immediately. However, if the bleeding is severe, do not hesitate to go to emergency department of the hospital.

Dislodged or loose dental filling or crown

Dental filling (permanent or temporary) can become loose and potentially dislodged during eating or trauma. It can be due to formation of secondary caries under existing filling, insufficient retention form in cavity preparation, poor moisture control during the procedure or adhesive failure. Tooth can become sensitive to hot/cold stimulus if dentine is exposed. However, if pulp cavity is exposed, this can lead to severe pain, pulpitis and even abscess.

Dentist cement dental crown permanently to the tooth with strong cement. However, adhesive between restoration core and tooth itself can fail. This weak link is the common reason of dislodged crown. Thus, resulting in filling material retained inside the dislodged crown. With careful diagnosis, some of the crowns or teeth can be salvaged provided the remaining tooth structure is sufficient.

A temporary crown is made to protect the tooth preparation while waiting for the final crown. So dentist cements it with temporary cement to facilitate removal in subsequent visit. If you notice your temporary crown is loose, you should visit your dentist by bringing the loose crown together. This will save a lot of work for the dentist to cement back the temporary crown for you.

How to prevent dental emergency?

In conclusion, regular dental check-up is important to avoid surprise. Early problem can be easily picked up by oral examination or dental x-ray. Do not ignore early warning like sensitivity and mild intermittent pain. Delaying your dental visit might cost you valuable time and money. In unfortunate situation, it might even cost you a tooth!

What to do during dental emergency?

First of all, don’t panic! Minor dental problem can be seen by your regular dentist in the next morning. Over-the-counter pain killers are easily accessible at 24 hours convenient stores and can relieve pain. In case of true emergency, most Accident and Emergency (A&E) department of hospitals offer 24 hours emergency dental service by on-call dentist.