Emergency Dentist – Preventing Avoidable Oral Damage

Your teeth are a very important part of your facial structure and should be handled with utmost care. Not only do you need to be keen about your daily routine for your personal oral health, you also need to have regular check-ups to ensure that your teeth are in good shape. However, there are times when you encounter problems with your teeth and the first indicator of a tooth problem is pain. Toothaches can be very uncomfortable and they can cause serious migraines which could put you down. In such situations, you need to contact an emergency dentist to look into your problem.

Gum injuries

The good news is that most of the tooth problems can be easily dealt with before they become compounded complications. Not only should you be keen about your teeth, you also need to care for your gums. Injuries to the teeth are usually more obvious and you will definitely know when they occur. On the other hand, injuries to the gums are often not considered serious and many people tend to ignore them. This should not be the case.

Gum injuries could be caused by anything from hard food like popcorn seeds to non-food substances like toothpicks. Once injured, your gum may develop a wound that is prone to infections. These infections could spread to the rest of the mouth and cause a lot of damage. It could also cause damage to both the blood vessels and nerves in your mouth. Pain and mouth sores would arise out of this, and these can be quite uncomfortable. In case of such an emergency, a dentist will be able to give you the best treatment as soon as possible.

Emergency Problems

There are other issues that come up over time due to exposure to elements such as heat, cold or pressure. For instance, if you had a cavity and it got filled, it is prone to damage. Over time the filling could wear off, leaving your tooth exposed again and this could be painful. You may also feel your tooth crack when chewing something hard and at other times it may get chipped and break off. The entire crown of your tooth could even fall off in some cases. These are some of the things an emergency dentist should be able to deal with.

Other cases can be very delicate, such as when a foreign object punctures and remains stuck in your gum. If not removed, such objects could lead to severe irritation and eventual infection. The first thing to do is attempt to get it out using either dental floss or a toothpick. Utmost care should be used to avoid causing more damage to your gums, which would make the situation worse than it already is. If you are unable to get it out, an emergency dentist would be able to take care of you. Ensure that you go as soon as possible because even if it is painless, it could readily get infected.

You could also have a condition known as pericoronitis, which is when your wisdom tooth fails to grow completely. Usually this happens with the wisdom teeth on the lower jaw. It can be painful as it grows, but it is a problem when it grows partially. Your gum covers part of the tooth and so provides an area where food particles can be hidden leading to a bad taste, bad breath and swelling of the gums due to infection. You should also see an emergency dentist for this.