Dental Emergencies
Aria Dental cares about your dental emergency, and can often make you a same-day appointment to get you out of pain. Call 210-681-4867 now for prompt dental care.
Common Dental Emergencies
An urgent dental situation can happen at any time. It may happen on a weekend or the middle of the night when you’re in pain and need immediate help. While we hope you never experience a dental emergency, it’s good to know that Dr. Mustafa and the staff of Aria Dental are here for you. No matter what the situation, we treat patients as quickly as possible, usually on the same day. You can simply contact us at 210-681-4867 for an appointment.
While a wide variety of dental emergencies do happen, there are certain types that are the most common. Here’s a list of the dental emergencies we treat most often here at Aria Dental:
- Abscessed tooth. An abscessed tooth is often swollen and causing significant pain. Because an untreated abscess can lead to very serious and life-threatening infection, make an appointment to see the dentist as soon as possible for evaluation and treatment.
- Broken or chipped tooth. The cause of a broken or chipped tooth may be a trauma to the mouth, or perhaps it happens during a bite into food. Either way, you’ll want to get immediate treatment to take care of the problem. Before you come to our office for treatment, rinsing your mouth with warm water may help with the pain. An ice pack can also help to reduce pain and swelling on your way to our office. Keep the tooth in its original place if possible.
- Broken or lost crown or filling. Another thing that can happen when biting into food is that you lose a filling, or break off a portion of a crown. You will likely feel sensitivity to temperature differences from things you eat or even during breathing. You’ll want to get an evaluation as soon as you can.
- Loose tooth. You may have a trauma to your mouth or jaw that results in a loose tooth. Cover an ice pack with cloth and hold it to your jaw for temporary pain relief until you can get to the office.
- Toothache. Tooth pain can result from a number of causes, but you’ll want to get out of pain as soon as you can. Until you get to our office, use over-the-counter pain killers, and try rinsing your mouth with warm water. You can also carefully floss around the tooth to loosen any food particles that may be lodged near the tooth if needed.
- Injured or broken jaw. Severe injury to your jaw will most likely require a trip to the emergency room. For less severe injuries, come to our office for an evaluation and treatment for the injury and a prescription for the pain.
Dental emergencies are inconvenient and often painful. We at Aria Dental care about your urgent dental situations and are eager to serve you to restore you to pain-free oral health. We can often get you in for a same day appointment, so call our office at 210-681-4867 and get out of pain fast!
You Have A Dental Emergency. What Next?
Patients with a cracked tooth often aren’t aware of the crack. Others feel the pain, and very carefully chew on the other side of their mouths. Both types of patients are susceptible to extremes in temperature, such as drinking hot beverages or drawing in a breath on a cold winter day.
The causes of this damage are many. Grinding of the teeth, called bruxism, is one cause of the damage. Another is gum disease following bone loss. Some health conditions like diabetes weaken the tooth, gum, and bone, resulting in cracks. What most patients don’t recognize is the reason this is an emergency.
Seek treatment from the dentist as soon as you can to avoid developing a serious infection that may require more expensive treatments to fix the problem.
Limitations of an ER for a Dental Emergency
If you are experiencing a true dental emergency and there is no option to see Dr. Mustafa or another dentist immediately, then it’s recommended that you visit an emergency room. Severe tooth pain and infections can quickly become life-threatening so you should not wait to seek help if you’re suffering. In most ERs, they will be able to treat you for pain and infection control but will not be able to perform dentistry to properly deal with the problem. The ER simply can’t help if you:
- Need a root canal, emergency or not
- Need to have crowns, veneers, or bridges cemented
- Lose a tooth
- Have broken dentures
- Need a tooth pulled
Unfortunately, today’s ER departments are streamlining their operations. If your doctor can treat you, they’ll refer you to your doctor. Dental problems simply don’t enter the picture.
Why A San Antonio Emergency Dentist Is Necessary
A crack isn’t only involved in the surface of the tooth. The crack sometimes continues down through the gum and into the nerve. Not only that, but the soft tissue inside the tooth or the pulp is also damaged. A crack that isn’t treated often begins at the root and travels up to the surface of the tooth, or a basically backward crack.
This is an emergency because infection will set into the tooth, gum, and bone in the form of an abscess. Our dentist, Dr. Mustafa will first drain the infection, scrape all signs of it out of the tooth, and possibly give the patient antibiotics to make sure all the infection is removed. The tooth can be saved with a root canal.
Signs Patients Need Emergency Dental Care
The emergency dentist in San Antonio, found at Aria Dental, might look at a patient’s tooth under magnification to spot the crack. The patient with a swollen cheek or jaw, pain when chewing or drinking, and sensitivity to heat or cold might have a hairline crack. This isn’t easy to spot with the naked eye, nor does it always show up on X-rays. Dr. Mustafa will zero in on the reason for the patient’s pain.
Signs of a damaged tooth will be different with each patient. See Aria Dental immediately if you have:
- Sensitivity to sweet foods or drinks, especially when you have no decayed teeth
- Sudden sensitivity to hot or cold foods or drinks
- Swelling in the area of the damaged tooth
- Pain when chewing or applying pressure to the teeth (tooth grinding)
- Discomfort around the problem tooth but the patient can’t identify it
Preventing Teeth Cracks
While treating a tooth crack, Dr. Mustafa will advise patients regarding prevention:
- Don’t bite into hard substances like ice, hard candy, or throat lozenges
- Don’t chew on pens
- Wear a mouth guard at night to prevent grinding of the teeth
- Concentrate on not clenching the teeth when angry
We Will Help You In Your Dental Emergency
If your dental emergency involves pain, trauma, or infection, then it’s an emergency indeed. Call Aria Dental and Dr. Mustafa at 210-681-4867 . We’re standing by to help.
