Dental Emergencies in Peoria

There’s never a good time to have a dental emergency, but knocked out teeth, intense pain, and major tooth fractures can all happen at any moment. Many dental emergencies arise from accidents, but you might also experience severe pain if tooth decay or a nerve injury gets out of control. We know that you can’t always plan for treating dental problems, which is why Maple Shade Dental Group wants you to know what a dental emergency involves along with when to call 911 and how our compassionate team can help!

What Do Dentists Call a Dental Emergency?

Anything that threatens your smile might feel like an emergency, but there are a few ways to tell if your dental problem qualifies for same-day treatment. Dentists tend to view knocked out teeth as an urgent problem, since you’ll need immediate treatment to try to save the tooth. The same is also true of major tooth fractures that tend to heal better with prompt care. Severe pain is another dental emergency. Since tooth pain can be bad enough to keep you up all night or interfere with your ability to eat and drink, your dentist may recommend coming to their office for a same-day appointment. While every dental issue isn’t necessarily an emergency, it helps to check in with your dentist when you have severe pain, a visible tooth or gum injury or signs of an abscess.

Should You Call 911 for Emergency Oral Health Problems?

The American Dental Association has shared that around 2% of visits to emergency rooms in the United States are relate to dental emergencies. Although not every oral injury is life-threatening, there are a few ways to know if you need to call 911 for help. Severe jaw and head trauma requires prompt medical care. The same is also true if you experience a major laceration to your checks or gums, since this can cause uncontrollable bleeding and heighten the risk of a serious infection.

You will want to call 911 if a dental injury leads to difficulty with breathing or if the person has lost consciousness. Calling 911 is also the best course of action during any situation where you aren’t sure if you are facing a true emergency, since it’s usually best to err on the side of caution. After calling 911, an operator will walk you through the steps to apply first aid and provide recommendations on whether you should go to the emergency room or call your dentist for an urgent appointment.

Steps to Take After a Dental Emergency in Peoria

Facing an emergency dental issue might cause you to feel frantic, but staying calm and knowing how to handle the situation is the best way to prevent long-term consequences. For bleeding, you can stop the flow by holding a clean cloth or sterile gauze over the injured area. Knocked out teeth can sometimes be saved for re-implantation by rinsing the tooth off with warm water and putting it back into its socket. A lost tooth can also be placed into a container of milk, saliva, or a special tooth preservative solution when keeping it in the socket isn’t possible.

Schedule a Same-Day Appointment

Every minute counts during a dental emergency, which is why Maple Shade Dental Group in Peoria has same-day appointments available for people who are facing an oral health crisis. Although you can usually wait a brief amount of time to fix a minor chipped tooth, you may not have this option with a major fracture that causes you severe pain or bleeding. Broken braces, dental abscesses, knocked out teeth, and relentless pain are all emergency dental situations where we can offer you a same-day appointment.

There’s no doubt that facing a dental emergency in Peoria is stress-inducing, but knowing what we can do to help you could make it easier to stay calm while you work on getting to our office. We encourage you to keep in mind that not every dental issue is severe enough to warrant emergency treatment, but we are also here to help when you need to make an urgent call. In many cases, we can not only stabilize your condition but begin treatment immediately, which helps to give you a better outcome for your recovery.

At Maple Shade Dental Group, your oral health and comfort are our biggest priorities. We encourage you to contact us at the first sign of a dental emergency, so that we can begin working on scheduling you a same-day appointment that can help to prevent further damage to your smile. Although you might be dealing with extreme pain or trauma, we can help you to begin feeling better as soon as you reach out to our family dentist in Peoria for emergency treatment.