Are you in pain?
Are you currently experiencing pain or swelling in your teeth or gums? This could be due to a cracked tooth, an abscess, tooth decay, infected gums or cavities. We know that no on plans to have a toothache, and its occurrence can be a serious disruption in your life. We at Serene Smiles are here for our Westerville patients with dental emergencies. In our efforts to care for the people of our community, we reserve time each day to accommodate emergency patients experiencing dental pain. During a same-day emergency visit, we will diagnose the cause of pain, lay out a clear treatment plan and ensure that we can make you comfortable and relieve your dental pain.
A same-day emergency dental appointment at Serene Smiles includes a thorough evaluation of the area of concern and a close-up dental x-ray. The cause of many toothaches is a dental infection. These infections can be dangerous, and prescription antibiotics may be necessary to fight the infection. Dental infections are unique in that antibiotics alone will never “cure” the infection. For this reason, your dentist will explain clearly which dental treatments are necessary to remove the underlying cause of the infection, stop the toothache, and prevent the problem from returning.
Due to the potential danger of a tooth infection, it is important not to ignore tooth pain or wait until it becomes unbearable. If you or a loved one are experiencing dental pain, call us today at 614-568-3909 for same-day emergency dental care.
What can I do if I have a chipped or cracked tooth?
Did you Chipped or Crack a Tooth?
Dental emergencies are not always painful. Suffering a chipped or cracked tooth, especially in a visible area of your mouth, may put you in a situation where you require same-day dental treatment. Some people experience chipped teeth as the result of an injury or trauma to the face. This is common during participation in sports or car accidents. You could chip a tooth by accidentally biting into something hard. Many people simply notice that a tooth appears chipped when they wake in the morning (which may be due to heavy clenching or grinding during sleep). Whatever the cause, an unsightly chipped tooth needs repair as soon as possible.
If you live in Westerville, New Albany or Gahanna and discover you have broken or chipped a tooth, don’t panic! The dentists at Serene Smiles excel in beautifully repairing chipped teeth. If you or a loved one have a chipped tooth, call us at 614-568-3909 to schedule a same-day visit.
It is important to understand that some teeth chip or break as the result of an underlying cavity. In order to prevent a toothache from developing, you should address chipped or broken teeth as soon as possible. Otherwise, your tooth could be damaged further or become infected, possibly causing you to end up losing the tooth.
In the meantime, try the following self-care measures:
- Eat soft foods and avoid biting down on the broken tooth. Using the tooth could cause further chipping or breakage.
- If the tooth is painful, take ibuprofen or another over-the-counter pain reliever. Rinse your mouth thoroughly with warm salt water for one to two minutes up to five times per day.
- If the chipped area has a sharp or jagged edge, cover it with a piece of wax paraffin (you can find orthodontic wax in the toothpaste aisle at your pharmacy or grocery store) or sugarless chewing gum to keep it from cutting your tongue or the inside of your lip or cheek.
Treatment for a broken or chipped tooth will depend on the size of the damage. If only a small piece of enamel broke off, the repair is typically a dental restoration bonded to the tooth in a single appointment. A badly damaged or broken tooth may require a more invasive treatment. Here are some ways your dentist may repair your broken or chipped tooth.
Dental Filling or Bonding
If you have chipped off a relatively small piece of tooth enamel, your dentist may repair the damage with a filling. If the area of concern a front tooth, visible when you smile, our doctors will likely repair the tooth with a procedure called bonding, which uses a tooth-colored composite resin.
Bonding is a simple procedure that typically does not require numbing the tooth. If the chipped area is sensitive to the cold air or water, we can use anesthetic to make sure you are comfortable throughout the procedure. Our doctors will restore the tooth to its natural shape and size with a matching composite material. This material has an adhesive bond to natural tooth structure and withstands normal chewing forces well.
You may not need an emergency visit for a simple chip or a broken tooth that is not causing you discomfort. You should still have the tooth fixed to avoid sharp edges that can cut your lips or tongue.
If a chipped front tooth has caused you or a loved one to need an emergency dentist in Westerville, call Serene Smiles 614-568-3909. We love rebuilding chipped and broken teeth so you can smile confidently again!
What do I do if I broke my denture?
Did you know dental emergencies occur even for those people who have no teeth? If you or a loved one wear a traditional denture to replace missing teeth, it is possible that you could experience a dental emergency with the denture. The pink base (the “gum” part) of a denture can crack or break completely. It is also possible for one of the denture’s teeth to chip or break off. When this happens, it could make it impossible to wear the denture.
If you live in Westerville, Gahanna or New Albany and have a broken denture, please call us at 614-568-3909 to schedule a same-day appointment with one of our emergency dentists.
Here are a few tips:
First off, determined what happened. Denture emergencies could involve a variety of problems. When you call to schedule your visit, please be prepared to answer the following questions so we will know how we can best assist you.
- Did a tooth come off or break?
- Did the denture break in half?
- Did a piece of the “pink” acrylic fall off or break off, leaving the denture mostly intact?
- Do you have a partial denture with a broken metal clasp?
Broken Denture Tooth
When a tooth in the denture falls out of the pink base, this type of repair is generally easy to temporarily fix yourself. As always, a professional repair with denture acrylic is the best long-term repair. However, when in a bind you have a few options:
- Denture Repair Kit – available from your local pharmacy or grocery store in the dental care aisle.
- You can use this kit as an alternative to super glue. Follow the instructions above and use in place of super glue. This repair kit says that you can use it to repair cracks in the pink denture base, but we do not recommend this use. For a cracked denture base, call us immediately for a same-day dental repair.
- Superglue- While this is not our first choice for temporary repair, you can superglue the tooth temporarily back into place.
- Take your denture out, dry it off, make sure the tooth goes right back in place.
- Apply a small amount of superglue, then quickly add the tooth.
- Give it time to dry, remove any excess material.
- There will be a chemical taste, and superglue is somewhat toxic. Expect this self-repair to only last a short while, try not to eat on the tooth.
- Remember that this is only a temporary repair. Call us to schedule a professional repair to provide a permanent solution.
Cracked Denture
We highly advise that you do NOT try to fix this yourself. The acrylic of the denture base requires professional treatment, so we do not recommend using over-the-counter products in an attempt to temporarily hold the denture together. The denture base determines the overall fit of the denture, so mistakes in repairing it can permanently disfigure the denture, making it impossible to wear. A do-it-yourself denture repair often results in irreparable damage, which means you would have to undergo the time and expense of making a new denture.
Our doctors at Serene Smiles are here to help when you have a denture emergency. Call Serene Smiles today at 614-568-3909.
I had a small accident and my or my child’s tooth fell out – what do I do?
In emergencies where a tooth is knocked out, knowing what to do and acting quickly will give you the best chance at saving the tooth. If at all possible, first find the tooth that has been knocked out. Bring it to our office as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the less chance there is for your dentist to fix it. Do not touch the tooth’s root! Only hold it by the biting edge. For the highest chance of success, begin heading to our office immediately, and call us on the way. To give the tooth a good chance of reattaching in the mouth, use one of these options for transporting the tooth to our office.
- Try to place the tooth back in your mouth where it fell out, so it is level with other teeth. Bite down gently on a gauze or a wet tea bag to help keep it in place. Be careful not to swallow the tooth.
- If you cannot do the above step, place the tooth in a container and cover it with a small amount of saliva or milk. Do not place it in plain water!
- You can also hold the tooth inside your mouth between your lower lip and gum or under your tongue.
As you make your way to the dental office, you can also follow these steps to address the situation:
- Apply a cold compress on the outside of your mouth and gums to ease pain.
- Apply direct pressure using gauze to control bleeding.
Our doctors will care for your urgent situation with compassion and skill. Whenever possible, we will re-implant the dislodged tooth, under local anesthetic to ensure your total comfort. We will stabilize the tooth by splinting it to the neighboring teeth and monitor the tooth for several weeks to determine its ability to reattach to the jawbone. After a tooth has been successfully re-implanted, it requires a root canal treatment to remove the severed nerve that remains inside the tooth. After addressing the emergency, we will help you understand the necessary follow-up care that will allow you to keep this tooth for many years.
If you live in Westerville, Gahanna or New Albany and you have a tooth that fell out or is broken please call Serene Smiles for help at 614-568-3909.
