Dental emergencies are frightening and often painful. Prompt treatment is almost always needed to relieve the pain and give the tooth its best chance. If you’re in severe pain, call us right away: pain from a dental emergency almost always gets worse without treatment, and a dental problem left alone can affect your overall health. Here’s what to do in the first few minutes, and what to expect once you reach us.
What causes dental emergencies
Teeth are strong, but they can still fracture, crack or break. The usual causes are:
- TraumaTo the mouth or face
- Grinding and clenchingThe teeth (bruxism)
- Biting on hard objects
- DecayUnder a filling or crown, which can loosen it
Fillings, crowns and other restorations can also be damaged or fall out completely. Whatever happened, the first step is the same: call our office.
A knocked-out tooth
If a tooth is placed back in its socket within about an hour, there’s a chance the tissues will grow to support it again. Act quickly:
- Call our office.
- Pick the tooth up by the crown (the part you chew with) and rinse it under warm water. Don’t touch the root.
- If you can, put it back in its socket. If not, tuck it into your cheek.
- If it can’t go in your mouth, keep it in a cup of milk, saliva, or, as a last resort, water. It mustn’t dry out.
- Get to our office quickly and safely.
When a tooth is knocked out, the tissues, nerves and blood vessels around it are damaged. We’ll try to put the tooth back in its natural socket, and in some cases it will reattach.
A loose tooth
A tooth loosened by an injury can often be saved. Call us immediately, and use a cold compress in the meantime.
The same goes for a tooth loosened by decay. If the tooth is still in the mouth and attached to its blood vessels and nerves, the outlook is better. Until you see us, a cold compress and over-the-counter pain medication can ease the pain. Your dentist will reposition the tooth and add a splint to hold it steady while it heals.
A lost filling or crown
Crowns and fillings usually come loose while eating, often because the tooth underneath has decayed and changed shape. The tooth can be very sensitive afterwards. Make an appointment as soon as possible, and keep the crown somewhere cool and safe, because it may be possible to put it back.
Once the crown or filling is out, the tooth may react to hot, cold and pressure. Don’t wait too long: if a crown is out of the mouth for a long time, the teeth can shift or be damaged further.
If you can’t reach us straight away:
- Apply clove oil to the tooth to ease the pain.
- Clean the crown and hold it in place with dental cement from a pharmacy.
- If the crown is lost, dental cement over the tooth can ease discomfort.
- Never use any kind of glue.
At your visit, we’ll check whether the crown still fits. If it does, we’ll reattach it. If there’s decay underneath, we’ll treat it and make a new crown.
A cracked or broken tooth
Some cracks are fairly painless, but one that reaches the root is likely to hurt a lot. Either way, book an appointment as quickly as possible. In the meantime:
- Rinse the mouth, and any broken piece, with lukewarm water.
- If there’s bleeding, apply gauze for ten minutes.
- A cold, damp dishtowel on the cheek helps with swelling and pain.
- If you can’t see us right away, cover the area with over-the-counter dental cement.
- A topical pain reliever can help.
A cracked tooth isn’t always obvious. It may not hurt until you bite down, when the crack widens and irritates the inside of the tooth, then eases again when you let go. Watch for:
- Unexplained pain when eating
- Sensitivity to warm and cold foods
- Pain with no obvious cause
- Pain that’s hard to pinpoint
Don’t ignore these. Left untreated, the inside of the tooth can be permanently damaged and constantly painful, and infection can spread to the bone and gums around it. Some cracks are visible, while others show up only on an X-ray.
What we can do depends on the break. After a complete break, the dentist will usually reattach the broken piece as a temporary measure.
If the tooth can’t be saved
Sometimes the damage is too severe and the tooth needs an extraction. A missing tooth can then be replaced with a bridge, a dental implant or partial dentures, all of which restore biting, chewing and speaking.
Good aftercare lowers the risk of pain and infection after an extraction:
- Keep gentle pressure on the gauze by biting down, and change it as needed.
- Some oozing and pink-tinged saliva is normal for the first 36 hours.
- Don’t drink through a straw for 5–7 days.
- If you smoke, stop for 3–4 days; smoking raises the risk of dry socket and infection.
Call us if bleeding hasn’t eased after 48 hours, or if the pain gets worse after a few days and throbs up toward the ear. That’s often a sign of dry socket, which needs a visit to our office. See our full guide to caring for your mouth after a tooth extraction.
Read the full guide on our dental emergencies page.
