Why You Should Deal with a Dental Emergency Quickly

What Is a Dental Emergency?

It is any dental problem that poses a sense of urgency, often presenting severe symptoms. Many dental emergencies that dentists in New Port Richey treat revolve around injuries and accidents. However, you can incur a dental emergency due to various factors, including:

1. Advancements on initial dental problems – if you leave them untreated for a long time.
2. Putting foreign objects in the mouth – particularly in between teeth.
3. Excessive teeth grinding – weakening your teeth and causing hypersensitivity and tooth fractures.
4. Eating hard foods like popcorn kernels or ice cubes – can break and crack teeth.
5. Poor oral hygiene – leads to plaque and tartar buildup that cause severe tooth decay and periodontitis.

How Do You Know You Are Experiencing an Urgent Dental Problem?

Dental emergencies can be hard to distinguish from other oral problems if you do not know better. Generally, you should always visit a dentist in 34653 for any dental problem or anomaly you notice. However, the following factors often point to a dental emergency:

1. Prolonged bleeding
2. Excruciating dental pain – whether in your jaw, tooth, or gums.
3. Significant swelling that seems to keep spreading to other parts of your body
4. Difficulty eating properly for more than one day.
5. Pain in other parts of your upper body, particularly the head, neck, and shoulders.
6. Missing tooth
7. An extruding or partially dislodged
8. Broken or damaged oral appliance – including dental veneers, braces, crowns, and dentures.

How Do You Handle Dental Emergencies?

When you realize you have an oral emergency, the first course of action should be to calm yourself down. You can get a lot done if you are calm and collected. Once you do, the following tips will help you handle your oral health well:

1. Take over-the-counter pain medication to manage your pain levels and alleviate inflammation.
2. Cold compress with an ice pack wrapped in a clean cloth.
3. Control the bleeding – use a clean washcloth or gauze to cover the wound. Bite it down gently until the bleeding slows down.
4. Gurgle saltwater – it will rinse your mouth and remove debris stuck between your teeth. Besides, saltwater will kill any active bacteria that increase the risk of oral infections.
5. Keep your head elevated when lying down – it will reduce bleeding, pain, and swelling.
6. Find the missing tooth and preserve it well – locating the tooth increases the chances of restoring it. When you find it, avoid touching the root, which can infect and damage it. Instead, soak it in milk so you can present it to a dentist near you.
7. Reach out to an emergency dentist near you – ultimately, you need the intervention of a dental expert in treating dental emergencies.

Reasons You Need Immediate Emergency Care

When you have an urgent dental problem, ensure you can locate an emergency dentist near you for immediate treatment for the following reasons:

1. Save your teeth – adult teeth do not grow back once you lose them. Therefore, if there is something you can do to save your teeth, do it. The good news is that emergency dentists in New Port Richey can salvage natural teeth if you get to them within the first hour of your traumatic event.
2. Avoid pain – over-the-counter pain medications are only good for suppressing pain for a few hours. If you want a permanent solution for your pain, you need urgent care services by Dr. Mitul Patel in Dental Arts New Port Richey.
3. Reduce the risk of infections – open wounds are very susceptible to infections. The stakes are higher for oral wounds since the mouth is a conducive breeding ground for bacteria. If you delay seeking treatment, you tremendously increase the probability of infecting your wounds.
4. Avoid the progression of oral problems – unfortunately, many dental emergencies develop due to advancements in regular dental problems. The longer you leave an oral problem unattended, the higher the likelihood of progression and advancements.

Manage your general health – a dental emergency may be why you need to visit an emergency room, but it is not the only reason. Dentists are great medical practitioners that can tend to the rest of your body’s health while treating your dental emergency.