Chronic Toothache? Emergency Dental Services
Are you experiencing pain in your teeth that’s become worse? Maybe you had a sudden, traumatic injury which damaged a tooth? These situations can be scary, however relief isn’t far away when you rely on Reflection Dental for quality emergency care. Our dentist and staff have the training and experience needed to provide quick and effective treatment for a wide variety of urgent situations, and we’ll schedule you in on short notice.
Tooth pain can be unbearable, so we place a high importance on treating dental emergencies. Our team will take immediate measures to see you as soon as possible.
Our office staff are highly experienced and can walk you through what to do to provide some temporary relief or to prevent further problems until you can make it in to our office. For more information on what to do in the meantime if you are experiencing a dental emergency, please call us immediately, or contact emergency services if you require hospitalization.
Patients needing an emergency dentist anywhere in Orange County are always welcomed, so please don’t hesitate to contact us.
What is a Dental Emergency?
These are some of the more common issues our patients call about
- Damaged or loss of dental crown
- Broken tooth
- Knocked out tooth
- Chipped tooth
- Loose tooth
- Abscess
- Severe toothache
- Gum tissue injury
Severe Toothaches
If you’re experiencing a really bad toothache, and it doesn’t appear that the tooth is loose or damaged:
- Clean the area around the affected tooth with a soft toothbrush.
- Rinse your mouth with warm salty water
- Use floss around the tooth to help remove any particles of food that may be contributing to the pain.
If that doesn’t help, and you’re still in pain, call our office for advice and to schedule an appointment. We do not advise you to use aspirin or heat on the gum or affected tooth. Sometimes placing a cold pack on your cheek can temporarily help.
Knocked Out Adult Tooth
If you lost a tooth because you tripped while running up the stairs in the house, or playing in a rough football game, we want to help you save your tooth and get it back in your mouth as soon as possible. Follow these steps:
- Find the tooth that came out. Make sure you hold it by the top of the tooth (the crown), not by the root.
- Rinse the tooth with milk or very briefly with water. Do not use soap.
- Check the tooth for any cracks.
- If it looks ok, try putting it back into its socket.
- Keep it in place by biting on a gauze pad or clean cloth.
- If you can’t get it back into the socket, keep it moist by placing it in a cup of milk (do not use water).
Time is of the essence when saving a tooth. Please call us ASAP.
Injuries to the Gums, Cheeks and Tongue
Have you ever been chewing on a piece of food and accidentally bite your tongue? Maybe your morning coffee was way too hot and it burned your mouth?
Your teeth are very strong, but not bulletproof. The soft tissues around them are full of nerves and are rather sensitive to burns, cuts and bites.
Injury to the soft tissues can be caused by:
- Physical trauma / accidents
- Accidental bites
- Chewing on hard objects
- Falls
- Burns by hot liquids
If you damaged the soft tissues around your teeth, call us ASAP and we’ll help ensure your injuries don’t get infected so that they can completely heal.
Lost a Crown or Filling Popped Out
If you had a filling fall out or a crown came off, it’s important to come see us right away.
Crowns and fillings protect the delicate parts of your teeth from infection and decay. If you delay replacing these, you could end up with longer-term issues such as tooth loss, a bacterial infection in your gums, or plaque eating away at your tooth.
Put the crown in a safe place and call us to set up your emergency appointment. We’ll have a good look to see what’s going on, clean up your tooth and then re-cement the crown if there is no decay on your tooth and the crown still fits. If the filling came out, we’ll clean out the tooth and replace the filling, assuming there’s no underlying issues that need to be addressed.
If you lost a filling or a crown, it’s okay – it happens. Put it in a safe place and give us a call. We’ll check your mouth to ensure no further injuries or infections have occurred as a result, and help you replace the filling or crown in a timely manner.
Wisdom Teeth Pain
We see a lot of these cases, especially in young adults. Before modern dental care, molars could decay and fall out. Wisdom teeth were helpful because they provided a secondary set of molars to replace those that were lost due to decay or disease.
With today’s advanced oral care, we tend to keep all of our teeth for our entire lives, and wisdom teeth aren’t really that useful. However, they can cause teeth to be crowded near the back of your mouth, come out at odd angles or maybe not even fully erupt and remain covered by a flap of gum. This gum flap can trap bacteria and sugars against the surface of the tooth, causing tooth decay and gum disease.
If you notice any of the following symptoms you may need to have your wisdom teeth extracted:
- Swelling, maybe to the point of being unable to fully bite down on food.
- A bad taste in your mouth, even after a thorough cleaning
- Pain around your back teeth.
- Difficulty fully opening your mouth
At Reflection Dental, we regularly see partially-erupted wisdom teeth, so we have lots of experience treating these cases.
Broken or Chipped Tooth
Time is of the essence when it comes to fixing a damaged tooth.
- Call our office immediately.
- Rinse your mouth with warm salty water.
- If you can locate the broken piece of tooth, bring it in to your appointment.
- Use a cold pack to reduce any swelling.
Dental Emergencies Need Addressing Right Now
Kids and adults experience a tooth emergency at some point in our lives, and they never happen at a convenient time. We understand that. Having cared for patients from around Orange County for years, we have the experience and technology to get you back on your feet ASAP.