Most of the people are not prepared for a dental emergency. Unlike other health emergencies, dental emergencies can be avoided largely if a person has a disciplined oral hygiene. Hence, experts at Texas Dental Center have created this guide for you to navigate from a dental emergency with ease.
First and foremost – you should be aware about the options you have when you are in a dental emergency situation. The biggest help you can get is obviously by the dentist you visit regularly. Hence, make sure you are very well aware of the hours your family or personal dentist is available in.
Usually, during the day, dentists will be available for emergency dental situation. That said, you should know which dental emergency center is open at night or during odd hours, to ensure you know about your options when the emergency shows up.
A simple sign of it being an emergency would be to gauge the propensity of pain, flow of blood or ineffectiveness of medicines. The reflex action in most dental emergency situations is to focus on some medicine to stop the pain. That said, in a real emergency, the pain killer may simply not work.
Hence, if the pain is unbearable and the situation cannot wait till the dentist’s appointment is available, it is an emergency.
The wisest thing here to do would be to take the patient the emergency ward. It is highly unlikely that a dentist will be available right away; that said, the emergency room in a hospital is well equipped with medicines and other resources required to take temporary care of the patient while a dentist is arrange for. Hence, the first thing you should do is take the patient to the emergency care unit in a nearby hospital.
In case that is not possible, and there is bleeding, try to tie up cotton around the area to stop bleeding. Under no circumstances should you try to pull a tooth by yourself.
The best possible way to deal with a dental emergency is by not getting into one. This can be done by going for regular dental check-ups.