Dental Emergencies: Be Prepared in Less than 5-Minutes

Emergency: A serious, unexpected situation requiring immediate action.

Dental emergencies: can often consist of: re-attaching a veneer or crown, attending a knocked out tooth, or performing an emergency root canal or extraction.

This is Not a Test!

Emergencies can occur any time and without warning. This holds true with dental emergencies. When do you ever plan to have your dental crown breakaway while eating, or an errant elbow to knock out a tooth during a “friendly” game of basketball? In fact, dental emergencies often occur at the most inopportune of times.

While you can’t always prevent a dental emergency, you CAN control your response to one. Knowing how to handle such an event can largely impact the outcome. Keep your smile happy and healthy, learn to:

1. Act quickly. It can make the difference between saving or losing a tooth.
2. Minimize panic and confusion.
3. Avoid unnecessary discomfort. Get your smile back on track sooner rather than later.

How can you do all this?

Be Prepared

Have a regular dentist you can call. Especially if your emergency occurs after hours, it’s much more beneficial to have a dentist on call who knows you and your dental situation. In addition, many dentists are only available for emergencies if the individual is a patient of record.

It seems like a silly suggestion, but it’s also important to have contact information for your dentist stored in your phone. If you are the one injured, you can have someone call your dentist and take you there if the information is readily available.

If Dr. Owens is your regular dentist, here’s a link to our contact information. Additionally, if you call outside of our business hours, Dr. Owens’ cell phone number is on our voicemail so you can contact him in case of emergency.

Remember, if a tooth is knocked out:

1. Immediately put it in milk.
2. Seek urgent dental care.

Share this reminder with friends and family to ensure they too are equipped! Such emergencies can’t always be avoided, but by working in conjunction with your emergency dentist, your smile will soon be at the top of its game again!