It's 2 am and you are awoken by discomfort under one of your teeth that has been hurting for the last few days. This is a bad sign!
Nobody likes a dental emergency and when you are faced with one, you may be concerned about what attending an emergency dental appointment will involve.
Many patients are concerned that they will be berated or lectured for letting the emergency happen at all, but this is not the case. Emergency dental teams are there to resolve any discomfort you are having and will work hard to make you feel as comfortable as possible.
When you come to Glenside Dental to see our general dentist Glenside or our emergency dental team, both will work to make you feel as relaxed as possible and will aim to resolve any discomfort that you are having irrespective of the underlying cause.
But is attending an appointment with our general dentist Glenside different from attending an emergency one? Here is a brief breakdown of what will occur if you need to attend an emergency dental appointment.
Assessment and cleaning
A standard visit to our general dentist Glenside for a check-up is all about looking for cavities. An emergency appointment is about assessment and diagnostics.
If you have an abscess or a cracked crown, this will be identified quickly and the team will begin working on a treatment plan to resolve the discomfort and the underlying issue. The area around the emergency problem will also be cleaned to remove debris and bacteria.
Treatment
There are few issues that an emergency team cannot treat in one session.
If you have a lost filling, a lost crown, a cracked tooth or have a bleed that has not slowed, then this can usually be treated in a simple appointment with the refitting of a restorative or closing an open wound.
However, if you have a dental abscess, this will usually require more than one trip to see our team to resolve.
Medications
Following on from the example of a dental abscess, if you have an infection, our team will prescribe antibiotics to get the infection under control.
This will help you feel better very quickly and will also reduce any pressure or swelling that you may have associated with the infection. In some cases, we may also choose to lance the abscess before treating the underlying cause to help with discomfort and healing.
Follow-up
If you have a dental infection, you will need to attend a follow-up appointment with a member of our general dental team to either have a root canal fitted or to have the tooth extracted.
Even though at this follow-up appointment you will probably be feeling a lot better (due to the infection now being under control) it is important not to skip this appointment. An untreated dental infection is highly unlikely to simply disappear and will require further treatment.
Prevention
Some dental emergencies can be hard to prevent, such as losing a crown, filling or cracking a tooth. But with toothache caused by extensive cavities or an abscess, these can be prevented usually by attending biannual check-ups with our team and maintaining good oral hygiene at home.
DISCLAIMER
All treatment carries risks. Individual consultation is required with one of our practitioners to ensure that the treatment is right for you.