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Dental Emergencies Need Emergency Care

Here’s an uncomfortable fact: your adult teeth aren’t supposed to hurt and they aren’t supposed to fall out. Dental pain or tooth loss is always a sign of something being wrong. When you experience pain in your teeth or jaw, it can be a sign of a dental emergency. The worst thing you can do is to try to tough out the pain. Dental emergencies are real emergencies that need professional care from Uptown Dental Care in Albuquerque, NM. Call our office at (505) 219-4548.

How To Know When You Need Emergency Care

Dental emergencies are usually due to a small number of factors. Let’s take a look at them one at a time.

Pain

Pain in the mouth is anything but normal. If you’re experiencing severe dental pain – and severed is whatever you call severe – then it’s a sign that it’s a potentially serious condition. The most likely causes of pain are:

    • Infection: When an infection reaches the nerves within the tooth, you’ll know about it sooner or later. The pain often begins fairly small but then increases rapidly, often to unbearable levels. You may experience throbbing in the tooth as well as swelling in the gums, jaw, or cheek. Dental infections hardly ever clear up on their own and they can do a lot of damage, including actually causing one or more teeth to fall out if not treated.
    • Broken or damaged tooth: The hard enamel that covers your teeth protects the tissues inside, including the nerves. If the enamel is damaged, and/or the tooth structure is compromised, the nerve can be exposed to saliva and air. The result is quite often pain. Enamel and teeth can break if too much pressure is applied or if you experience an impact on your jaw or teeth. As with infections, the pain can radiate to a larger area. And damaged enamel is a pathway for infection. If you have a broken tooth, try to collect all the pieces and bring them with you to your emergency appointment. It may be possible to bond those pieces together, which is a much faster and less expensive solution.
    • Cuts to the tongue, gums, or cheeks: The interior of your mouth has a generous supply of both nerves and blood vessels. Cuts to the soft tissues can be very painful if they involve the nerves. Cuts can occur due to dental work such as traditional braces, biting your tongue, or a foreign object in the mouth. Cuts that are extremely painful or bleed so freely that you can’t stop the bleeding within a reasonable time need professional attention.

Tooth Loss

Your adult teeth are firmly anchored in bone and are designed to stay in place for your entire life. Tooth loss occurs when the roots and the supporting ligament are compromised by infection, or when a sharp impact occurs to your mouth.

If your tooth leaves you for no apparent reason, you need a dental examination as soon as possible. Untreated dental infections can cause or contribute to several very serious health conditions.

If the tooth has been knocked out by an impact due to sports, an accident, or a blow, it’s often possible to carefully re-insert it into its socket. Rinse the tooth (be careful not to touch the roots) and if you are successful at putting the tooth into place, leave it alone! It will take some time to firmly re-root.

If you can’t reinsert the tooth, place it in a small container of milk and bring it with you to your emergency appointment. Call Uptown Dental Associates at (505) 219-4548 right away to schedule your appointment. We have a range of comfort options, including different levels of dental sedation, to make your emergency appointment as comfortable as possible.