Is Your Dental Issue a Dental Emergency?

Even the best-kept smiles can suffer unexpected harm. In fact, many dental problems come without warning. Whether you wake up with a sudden toothache or suffer tooth damage during an accidental injury, it is important to understand what constitutes a dental emergency. In other words, which dental concerns need immediate attention and which ones can wait?

Types of Dental Emergencies

Compared to other dental issues, a dental emergency is one where you need to get treatment immediately because it is causing extreme pain, it is threatening your health or it has the potential to quickly progress to a more severe problem. At Alora Dentistry, we proudly treat the following common dental emergencies with same day treatment if necessary:

• Severe and Persistent Tooth Pain – possible sign of advanced decay or a severe infection
• Knocked-Out Adult Tooth – must reimplanted within 15-30 minutes after injury to save the tooth
• Severely Cracked Tooth – the fractured tooth is highly vulnerable to infection
• Severely Chipped Tooth – a sharp edge could cut your tongue or cheek
• Loose Adult Tooth – the tooth is at risk for dying and/or falling out
• Pimple-Like Bump on Gums – indicates a serious infection called a dental abscess
• Broken Dentures – impairs your ability to eat

Whether it is putting your dental health at risk or threatening your everyday dental function, these dental emergencies require timely attention.

Know Your First Steps

We always recommend that patients call our office if an unexpected dental problem develops – even if you think it is not an urgent matter. In many cases, there are steps you can take at home while you wait to be seen in our office. These can include action steps that can help alleviate your pain, prevent your condition from worsening or even save your tooth. For example, if you’ve knocked out a tooth, you should put it in a glass of milk or in between your gums and cheek to keep it moist until we can put it back into place.

Accidents happen and not all dental problems are predictable. We are here for you at Alora Dentistry. We offer stress-free emergency dental care in our Napa Valley office.