Four Tips For Handling A Dental Emergency

A dental emergency can be a major problem that will have to be handled in a timely fashion. However, individuals are often poorly prepared to respond to dental emergencies. This can lead to them inadvertently contributing to these issues becoming worse. Keeping some basic first aid care tips in mind will help you to be ready if you encounter a serious dental emergency.

Avoid Delays In Seeking Treatment

One of the most important things that you can do to address your dental emergency is to seek prompt treatment from an emergency dentist. When patients delay having their dental injury treated, they may be much more likely to develop damaging and painful infections. Luckily, there are many dentists that offer emergency care services to their clients, and patients using these services may find that they can receive treatment within hours of notifying the dentist of the issue.

Manage Swelling

As you are waiting for treatment, there is a chance that your dental injury may start to suffer extensive swelling. This can dramatically increase the amount of discomfort that you experience while also potentially contributing to further damage and shifting of the teeth. An ice pack can be an excellent way of reducing the amount of swelling that can occur in response to these injuries. To help to make this less uncomfortable, you can wrap the ice pack in a thin cloth so that it will not come into direct contact with the skin.

Keep The Injury Clean

Gently cleaning the injury site will be essential for helping to reduce the risk of an infection developing. Depending on the extent of the injury, mouthwash or other traditional cleaning options may be too harsh. If you are concerned that mouthwash will be too harsh for your particular injury, you can use salt water to help gently clean the injury. This will not completely prevent the risk of the injury becoming infected, but it will help to reduce the risk.

Chew On The Opposite Side Of The Mouth

If it will be several days before you are able to seek treatment, you will need to eat with your injury. To minimize the amount of damage and pain that can occur while you are eating with your injury, you should limit yourself to extremely soft foods, and you may also want to limit yourself to chewing on the opposite side of the mouth from the injury. After you eat, make sure to thoroughly clean your mouth so that you can remove any food particles that may have gotten in the injury.


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