Dental Emergency: SOS
Having a dental emergency? Are you in excruciating pain and the painkillers do not relieve you? Don’t panic! The Dentists in our clinic are in your disposal 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to help you, providing you the necessary medical services that are best for your problem!
Call us!
phone number: +30 6982170439
If you have a toothache
What it could mean:
- A toothache could mean tooth decay, a cavity, gum disease, or even that you’re grinding your teeth (bruxism).
What to do:
- Tooth pain can be in many forms, frequency and intensity.
- It’s important to have a complete exam at the dentist to identify the root cause of a toothache in order to understand the best way to address it.
If your face swells up
What it could mean:
- A serious dental infection that needs immediate response by a dentist. Typically, these types of conditions don’t get better on their own.
- It could be an infected tooth, bone infection, or gum infection.
What to do:
- Don’t wait. Go see a dentist right away. If you delay, it is possible to die from an infection in or around the mouth.
- Stay upright and don’t lie flat, even during sleep.
- Drink fluids. Getting dehydrated while you have an infection could make complications more likely.
If you knocked out a tooth
What it could mean:
- If you lose the tooth, you’ll need an implant. An implant fills the space where the root used to be in the gum.
- If you are able to reimplant the tooth within the hour (meaning, stick it back in), there’s a good chance that it’ll take. If the tooth is reimplanted properly, there’s still a likelihood that you’ll need a root canal, but at least you’ll have your own tooth and won’t need an implant.
What to do:
- Pick it up by the crown, not the root. The crown is the part of the tooth you bite with and the root is the pointy end of the tooth. Touching the root damages the tissue that helps with reimplantation.
- For an adult tooth only, try placing the tooth back in the socket. Before you do this, look at the teeth on the other side of the mouth that are mirror images of the tooth you’re trying to reimplant in order to visualize how it should be placed back in so that you don’t place it the wrong way. This might make you squeamish, but I’ve coached patients through doing this over the phone and it’s been successful. Make sure you do this without touching the root. Only do this if you know what you’re doing. I’ve seen knocked out teeth re-inserted facing the wrong way!
- Call your dentist and let them know you’re coming to the office. Either your dentist or the dentist on call should see you right away. If not, head to the emergency room. This should all be done within the hour.
If you have a broken, cracked, or chipped tooth
What it could mean:
- Typically, if it’s a small crack you’ll need a filling and if it’s a large piece you’ll need a crown. If the tooth is cracked all the way through, that would call for a tooth extraction and need for an implant. If a crown breaks in half or if it falls off, you can wait a few days to have it fixed/replaced.
What to do:
- Don’t panic! If you’re not in pain, that buys you a lot of time. Most often, teeth will break and there’s no pain. It’s normal for there to be, at least initially, some sensitivity to cold and heat—all that means is that the piece that broke off was large enough to expose the inner structure of the tooth called dentin. This sensitivity will go away in a few hours to a few days as saliva will remineralize and insulate that area.
- Call your dentist. Your dental office won’t know if they should schedule you for a filling, crown, or extraction, so chances are, they’ll schedule you for a consult and then you’ll go in a second time to actually have the work done. To minimize dental appointments, the more info you give them over the phone, the better. You could say to them something like, “one cusp broke off” or “one half of my tooth broke off” or “a filling fell out.” Better yet, email or text them a photo!