Dental Emergencies: What to Do in a Crisis

Dental emergencies can occur suddenly.

One minute you feel fine, the next you’re struck with severe tooth pain, swelling in your gums, a broken tooth or trauma to your mouth. Urgent dental situations often require fast action, especially if a tooth is knocked out or severely injured. While you’re waiting for care, knowing what you should and shouldn’t do can help protect your smile.

Patients come to Dabuleanu Dental with many types of urgent dental issues, including sudden toothaches, infections, broken teeth and injured mouths. If you’re wondering whether or not you need immediate care, it’s always best to call the office to ask.

What Qualifies as a Dental Emergency?

While most dental issues can be scheduled for a regular appointment, emergencies exist for when you have severe tooth pain, extensive swelling, trauma to your mouth or other urgent dental issues. Some symptoms should be addressed immediately, while others can typically wait for your next dental appointment.

When it comes to toothaches and injured teeth, situations that may require emergency dental care include:

• Severe or persistent tooth pain
• Swelling around teeth, jaws or face
• Knocked-out permanent teeth
• Badly cracked or broken teeth
• Permanent teeth that become loose or displaced from an injury
• Dental abscesses or suspected infections
• Bleeding that will not stop
• A lost filling or crown that is causing considerable pain or discomfort
• Trauma to teeth, gums or jawbones

Dental emergencies may include uncontrolled bleeding, severe tooth pain, infection, dental trauma or fractured teeth.

Who Can I See for a Dental Emergency?

If you have an emergency, call Dabuleanu Dental in North York at 416-222-5055.

When Should You Go to the ER Instead of the Dentist?

While many dental issues can be addressed by your dentist or dental specialist, there are some instances where you should go to the hospital.

These include:

• Difficulty breathing or swallowing
• Severe swelling that spreads to your mouth, throat or neck
• Heavy bleeding from your mouth that will not stop after applying pressure
• Serious injury to your face or jaw
• Loss of consciousness or other signs of a significant head injury

Some dental infections can spread to other tissues in the face and neck. In rare cases, these infections can cause swelling that may involve the airway. Anytime you experience trouble breathing or swallowing, seek emergency medical care immediately.

Severe Tooth Pain – Now What?

When you experience sudden tooth pain, it can be one of the most painful experiences. There are a wide variety of potential causes of tooth pain including tooth decay, cracked teeth, inflammation of the pulp inside your tooth, infection and more.

While many aches and discomforts can come and go, severe pain that persists, keeps you up at night or becomes progressively worse should be evaluated by a dentist.

To relieve discomfort, you can rinse your mouth with warm water and gently floss the area if you feel that something may be trapped. Try to avoid placing aspirin on top of your tooth or gums, as this can irritate or burn the gum tissue.

Over-the-counter medications may help reduce pain for some people, but they do not treat the underlying issue.

Can Severe Tooth Pain Mean You Need a Root Canal?

Just because you have severe pain does not mean you will need a root canal.

Teeth that have significant inflammation or infection of the pulp tissue deep inside the tooth may require root canal treatment.

Symptoms such as ongoing pain, pressure, swelling or sensitivity to hot and cold can be signs that you should be evaluated by your dentist or an endodontist.

Emergency Root Canal Treatment in North York

At Dabuleanu Dental, we offer endodontic services in North York and Root Canal Treatment when appropriate to help preserve natural teeth.

Lost Tooth? Here’s What to Do

A knocked-out permanent tooth is one instance where time plays an important role. When an adult tooth is knocked out of the mouth, the tooth may sometimes be replanted.

If you or someone you know has had a permanent tooth knocked out, follow these tips:

• Find the tooth and pick it up by the crown. Avoid touching the root of the tooth.
• If the tooth is dirty, rinse it gently with water. Do not scrub the tooth or try to remove any attached tissue.
• Try to place the tooth back into its socket if you can do so safely.
• Otherwise, keep the tooth moist in milk or a tooth preservation solution.
• Contact your dentist or endodontist immediately.

The faster you receive treatment for a knocked-out tooth, the better the chance it may be saved. Ideally, it should be assessed as quickly as possible.

What Should I Do if a Baby Tooth Gets Knocked Out?

Unlike adult teeth, if a baby tooth gets knocked out, do not try to force it back into the socket. Injury to a baby tooth can affect the permanent tooth developing underneath it.

Children with knocked-out baby teeth should still see a dentist to make sure there are no other associated injuries.

Lost Filling or Crown?

If your crown or filling comes out suddenly, that doesn’t always mean you need emergency care.

However, you should contact your dentist to find out how soon you should come into the office. A lost restoration can leave your tooth sensitive to temperature, painful or vulnerable to further damage.

To care for the tooth while you wait:

• Keep the crown if you are able to find it. Bring it with you to your dental appointment.
• Avoid chewing on that side of your mouth.
• Do not attempt to permanently fix the crown yourself with household or store-bought glue.
• Give the dental office a call and let them know what happened. The front desk can help determine how quickly you need to be seen.

Chipped or Broken Tooth?

There are varying levels of tooth fractures. Small chips can occur and may not always require urgent treatment. If your tooth is cracked, broken, severely chipped or you are unsure of what happened, follow these tips.

• Rinse your mouth with warm water.
• Apply a cold compress to the outside of your mouth to help with swelling.
• Avoid chewing on your injured tooth.
• Find any tooth fragments that may have broken off and bring them with you to your appointment.

A cracked tooth doesn’t always hurt when you eat or drink. However, you should still get it checked since the break could be worse than what you can see.

Loose Tooth After Trauma?

Trauma to the mouth can sometimes cause permanent teeth to become loose, pushed inward, moved out of position or even knocked out.

Dental injuries can impact not only the visible parts of your tooth but also the root underneath and the dental pulp.

Not all loose teeth will require root canal treatment, but an endodontist may need to treat the tooth if trauma affects the inside of the tooth.

Schedule an appointment with your dentist to evaluate the injury and discuss treatment options.

Swollen Face or Gums?

Some dental pain is caused by infection.

Infections in the teeth can cause a dental abscess to develop either around the tooth or in the gums.

Signs of infection can include:

• Severe tooth pain
• Tenderness to touch
• Swelling around the face or jaw
• Foul taste in your mouth
• Difficulty chewing or biting down
• Fever
• Painful, swollen cheek or jaw

Dental infections require professional treatment.

Make sure to see your dentist if you think you have an abscessed tooth, and contact them promptly if you experience spreading swelling, fever or other signs of infection.

If you begin to have difficulty breathing or swallowing, call 911.

Do not try to rely on at-home remedies to treat a dental infection. Visit your dentist to have the cause properly assessed and treated.

Should I Visit the Dentist if Something Gets Stuck?

If you ever experience something stuck between your teeth that you’re unable to remove, do not use sharp objects to try to get it out.

Digging around between your teeth can cause irritation and possibly even injury to your gums.

Food can become wedged between teeth and cause considerable discomfort. If you are unable to safely remove something with floss, see your dentist. They have the proper tools to remove foreign material without damaging the surrounding gums.

What Should You Not Do During a Dental Emergency?

When you’re in severe pain, it’s sometimes difficult to know what you should or shouldn’t do.

Here are a few things to avoid:

• Don’t place aspirin on your tooth or gums
• Avoid repairing your tooth with Super Glue or other household adhesives
• Don’t poke or pull objects stuck in your teeth with sharp tools
• Don’t scrub or wipe the root of a knocked-out tooth
• Don’t ignore severe swelling or pain that becomes worse
• Don’t assume your situation isn’t an emergency and wait to call

If you are experiencing severe tooth pain or aren’t sure what is wrong, it doesn’t hurt to give us a call.

Our team at Dabuleanu Dental is here to help determine how urgently your tooth should be assessed.

What Happens During an Emergency Dental Appointment?

When you come into our dental office for emergency care, we will do our best to see you as soon as possible.

During your appointment you can expect:

• To discuss your symptoms with the dentist
• An exam of your affected tooth or mouth area
• Possible X-rays or other imaging to evaluate the tooth
• Evaluation to determine if there is infection or dental trauma
• Treatment to help relieve pain or pressure when possible
• Temporary treatment if more extensive care needs to happen at a later appointment
• A discussion of the next steps and a treatment plan based on what the dentist finds

Treatment will vary depending on what is found during the exam.

Some teeth may require emergency root canal treatment while others may simply need an existing filling repaired.

At Dabuleanu Dental, we strive to accommodate emergency patients as quickly as possible. If you are in severe pain, contact our office and we will work with you to arrange urgent care.

Can Dental Emergencies Be Prevented?

Unfortunately, many dental emergencies are caused by sudden accidents or injuries.

However, you can still take steps to reduce the likelihood of dental problems and trauma:

• Maintain routine dental exams
• Treat cavities or damaged teeth promptly
• Wear a properly fitting mouthguard for contact sports
• Use your teeth for eating – not as tools for opening packages or objects
• Chew with caution when eating very hard foods
• Never ignore cracks in a filling, damaged crowns or recurring tooth pain

Regular dental checkups and cleanings can help catch problems before they become painful and require emergency treatment.

Emergency Dental Care in North York

Dealing with tooth pain, swelling or trauma to your mouth can be overwhelming.

You don’t always know what is wrong, but you know you need help.

If you are experiencing severe tooth pain, injury to your mouth or another dental emergency, contact Dabuleanu Dental in North York. Our team can assess the problem and help determine what treatment may be required.

Call us at 416-222-5055.

Dabuleanu Dental
2 Finch Ave W
North York, ON M2N 6L1

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