How Urgent Oral Care Works: Common Dental Emergencies & Their Treatments

September 4, 2024

A woman suffering a common dental emergency

A dental emergency could leave you panicked even if you want to stay calm. After all, this sort of problem leaves most folks alarmed and unsure of their next steps. There’s good news, though – knowing how urgent oral care works should ease many of your worries. You can go into treatment feeling cool, collected, and confident once you learn its ins and outs. As for where to start, consider these four common dental emergencies and their treatments.

Harsh Toothaches

While slight tooth pain isn’t that bad, harsh toothaches are serious. Most are brought on by problems like gum disease or abscesses that greatly threaten your smile. Left unchecked, they’ll interfere with daily tasks and even lower your quality of life.

Thankfully, most dentists have two ways of treating such toothaches. One is a root canal – a procedure that removes the infected pulp causing your pain. In contrast, the other is a tooth extraction that gets rid of the whole pained tooth.

Fractured or Cracked Teeth

They may seem harmless, but fractured or cracked teeth need immediate care. Their inner layers are often exposed by forceful biting, teeth grinding, and similar factors. As a result, failing to treat them often results in oral pain, cavities, and tooth infections.

Modern dentists can use several methods to fix fractured or cracked teeth. For example, they could place a dental crown that hides the damage and keeps it from getting worse. Another approach would be dental bonding, which could apply tooth-colored resin to repair the cracks.

Knocked-Out Teeth

It goes without saying that knocked-out teeth count as emergencies. When you suffer them, your smile’s health and strength will seriously falter as new gaps form. As the spaces left by your missing teeth go unchecked, they’ll let harmful bacteria grow and threaten your mouth.

For an emergency dentist, two ways exist to treat knocked-out teeth. The first is to save each tooth and quickly place them back in your mouth. On the other hand, the dentist could replace the lost teeth with replacements like dental implants.

Lost Dental Fillings

Whatever you may have thought, lost dental fillings are big problems. They deprive your teeth of protective material that prevents pain, tooth decay, and more. As you go longer without the fillings, you could even develop an infection that causes tooth loss.

To compensate for a lost dental filling, your dentist could give you a root canal. This service would remove your tooth’s infected tissue before harmful bacteria spread any further. Once it’s done, a dental team can give you a new filling.

When you know common dental emergencies and their treatments, your oral problems won’t seem as scary. So, keep those details in mind as you pursue your urgent care.

About the Practice

Connection Dentistry is based in Raleigh, NC, and led by Drs. Rensch and Laster. Here at our practice, we value personalized dental care and treat each patient like family. That means our team offers custom treatments that span preventive, cosmetic, and restorative dentistry, as well as help for dental emergencies. Such service ensures you and your smile get the best results possible! As for any further details, please reach us on our website or by phone at (919)-787-0355.