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Dental emergencies can happen at any time. There are almost limitless causes of dental emergencies but there are some common causes include chips or cracks caused by biting down on something hard. Physical trauma such as a sporting injury or motor vehicle accident are also responsible for many dental emergencies such as knocked out teeth. These can be very concerning times during practice hours but are even more serious when the emergency happens out of hours.
If your dental emergency takes place during normal practice hours, your Central London dentist will be able to fit you in around their normal appointments depending on the severity. However, if it occurs outside of normal practice hours, there will be information about how to get in touch with the on-call dentist on your surgery’s answering service.
There are several steps you can take after a dental emergency to give yourself a better chance of successful treatment. If a tooth has been chipped or knocked out it is important to find the excess part and preserve it either in milk or saliva. This will increase your chance of the dentist being able to replace or reattach the fragment or tooth.
You can attempt to stop bleeding and swelling by using cold compresses either on the inside or the outside of the cheek. This will also help to limit the pain you may be experiencing. You can take pain relief medicine but never place aspirin next to the skin in the mouth as this may cause tissue damage. Try to see a dentist as soon as possible after the emergency to give your self the best possible chance of successful treatment.