Dental Emergencies: Cracked, Chipped or Knocked-Out Tooth

Even if you take all the precautions to keep your oral health, emergencies can still occur. It’s essential to have enough information and react appropriately when a dental emergency occurs. Your reaction is the key to protecting your damaged tooth and increasing the chance of saving it. An emergency dentist is trained and educated to handle even the worst type of dental emergencies and save your oral health. They know which treatment is best based on your condition, needs, medical history, etc. Depending on your specific circumstances, you experience different emergency dental services to save your teeth and prevent further problems. Based on the statistics provided at a same-day emergency dental clinic in Ancaster, one of the most common and severe dental emergencies is to find your tooth cracked, chipped or knocked out. If left untreated, it can even lead to more severe problems like dental infection and tooth loss. Such conditions can result from sports damage, car accidents or other dental traumas. Visiting your reliable emergency dentist should be your priority when you experience such dental emergencies. Today’s article reviews helpful plans to deal with a chipped, cracked or knocked-out tooth.

Table of Contents

Chipped or Cracked Tooth

If you find your tooth chipped, it may not be necessary to visit an emergency dentist. Sometimes, a chipped tooth is not considered a serious dental problem. Yet, it can extend deeper than the tooth enamel, and it’s when you should visit your emergency dentist to prevent tooth infection, tooth loss and other complications. On the other hand, a cracked tooth should be immediately addressed by an emergency dentist. Common symptoms of an emergency cracked tooth is severe tooth sensitivity, sharp pain when biting down and intermittent toothache. Your emergency dentist can fix the damaged tooth with fillings, tooth bonding or dental crowns. But root canal treatment or tooth removal may be needed in more severe cases.

How to Handle a Cracked or Chipped Tooth?

It’s important to know what you can do until visiting your emergency dentist. If you feel your tooth is chipped or cracked, it’s necessary to contact your emergency dentist and make an urgent appointment. Here are some steps you can take until you see your emergency dentist:

Rinse your mouth with warm salt water
Take over-the-counter medications
Ask your emergency dentist for helpful tips
Apply an ice bag on the damaged area to relieve swelling
Use clean gauze to apply pressure if you experience bleeding
Don’t consume any hard foods

Knocked-out Tooth

Knocked-out or avulsed tooth is the worst dental emergency you can ever experience. You might need tooth replacement options like dental implants if you lost the tooth. However, there is a chance to save the damaged tooth if you visit your emergency dentist as quickly as possible after you have a tooth knocked out.