Having a dental emergency is not exactly a life and death situation. However, it can be painful and alarming. If the dental emergency includes blood, it may even cause you to panic. Dental problems shouldn’t be ignored because they lead to potential and greater risks later on.

It’s important to note that during your dental emergency, your dentist will not be with you. You have to deal with it on your own first. The situation may require you to do some self-medication to help you get by until you get to a clinic.

Read the following emergency dentist London tips when you have a dental problem. This way, you’ll be able to give yourself some necessary first aid:

Digital Diagnosis in Dentistry

A device called the Canary is an electric toothbrush-sized device that emits a pulse red laser light. It uses digital imaging to identify caries and cracks that are too small to see in X-rays, thus improving the process of diagnosis in dentistry.

Bleeding Mouth

It’s unusual for your mouth to bleed because the mouth is very good at preventing bleeding in the first place. If your mouth is indeed bleeding, it may be a chronic or acute condition, and it’s also a sign of gum disease or gingivitis.

You can also see signs of bleeding even if you’re not doing anything, such as blood present in your saliva.

If you’ve just had a tooth extraction and your gums won’t stop bleeding, you need immediate attention from a dentist.

Here are some tips when your mouth won’t stop bleeding:

• Blood on your toothbrush and floss is not a good sign. Most dental website will say you have a chronic oral problem that may cause you to lose your teeth. Thus, you have to book an appointment with a dentist as soon as possible.
• If the cause of your bleeding is due to tooth extraction, you have to go back to your dentist. It’s normal for the bleeding to persist the night after the procedure, but anything longer than that is abnormal.

In case your dentist is not available, you should go to an oral surgeon.

• You have to keep your head elevated if there’s bleeding in your mouth to keep the blood flow down. The same procedure is similar to when you have an injured hand or another body part – you have to keep that area elevated.

Toothaches

Toothaches are bothersome and cause extreme discomfort. If you have a toothache, you have to keep the area where the pain is clean.

First, you should thoroughly rinse your mouth with lukewarm water. Clean the area thoroughly by using dental floss and removing any food particles. Toothaches may cause your mouth to become swollen, so you should apply a cold compress near your mouth or cheek. Don’t use aspirin near the affected area because it can burn the tissues surrounding it. You also have to stay upright, even if you’re sleeping.

Although pain in the mouth area is almost always attributed to toothache, it may also be gum disease or bone infection. You have to see your dentist immediately and don’t wait.

Broken, Cracked, or Chipped Tooth

If your teeth bump into something hard, it may get chipped or cracked. In this case, you’ll need a filling. If a large piece of tooth has fallen off, you may even need a crown. If the tooth is cracked completely, you’ll need to have it removed.

Usually, if your teeth have just been cracked or chipped, you’ll not be experiencing any pain. However, you may feel that you have an unusual sensitivity to heat and cold because the dentin part of your tooth has already been exposed.

The sensitivity will wear off because saliva will do its chemical action of remineralization in the affected area.

However, if there’s already a pain, you can try doing these first aid methods:

• Rinsing your mouth with warm water immediately and gather all the broken pieces of tooth and rinse them.
• If there’s bleeding in your gums, you should apply gauze until the bleeding stops, which will be about ten minutes.

After doing those things to mitigate the pain, here are some tips when consulting with your dentist when you have a broken, cracked or chipped tooth:

• To save on time, you should schedule an appointment for the dentist for the procedure itself. The procedure you’ll undergo may either be a tooth extraction, filling or crown.
• If your dentist doesn’t know what the issue is, they’ll schedule you for a consultation, and you have to go back a second time for the procedure itself.

• A good way to get your teeth into proper health immediately is to describe to them your condition or send them a photo so they can have a clearer idea and schedule you for a procedure.

Knocked-Out Tooth

The crown is that part of the tooth that’s exposed when a tooth is knocked out or removed. As much as possible, don’t touch the exposed tissue fragments.

Don’t rinse the fallen tooth since you have to preserve the tooth until you get to a dentist. What you can do in the meantime is to try to reinsert the tooth in your gums. If it fits, then you have to make your tooth facing the right way.

If you can’t fit your tooth back into your gums, you have to put the tooth in a cup of milk. If milk is not available, water with a pinch of table salt will suffice.  However, the ideal liquid to put your tooth is one that has a cell growth medium.

Whatever the case may be, you have to see a dentist immediately for knocked out tooth because you’ll have higher chances of getting your tooth back if it has been reinserted by a dentist within an hour.

Objects Caught Between Teeth

If you have an object trapped in between your teeth, it can be uncomfortable and tricky to get out. The first thing you can do is try to pry it out with floss. But, if that doesn’t work, you may have to book an appointment with your dentist.

One thing you should never do is to use sharp and pointed objects to get the object out. You may accidentally hurt yourself or even scratch your gums and tooth surface.

Lost Filling

When the filling is gone, the membranes and nerve inside the tooth get exposed.

What you can do is to stick a sugarless gum in the cavity as a temporary cover. Don’t use gum with sugar because it’ll react to the exposed wound and cause you pain. You can also use over the counter dental cement.

You have to see your dentist immediately so they can put new fillings in.

Lost Crown

If the crown of your tooth falls off, you should save it and book an appointment with your dentist.

There are instances where the lost crown will cause you pain. In this case, you can apply clove oil to the affected area. Put the clove oil on a cotton swab and apply it. You can put the crown back over the tooth, but you’ll have to apply dental cement to coat the inner surface. Toothpaste will also suffice as well as a denture adhesive.

You should use these just to hold the crown in place.

Broken Braces and Wires

Broken braces can be very uncomfortable because it sticks out unevenly in your mouth. Broken wires are the same – they poke at your gums, causing scratches and bleeding.

In this case, what you can do is to get the eraser of a pencil and push the wire to a more comfortable position. In cases where you cannot reposition the wire, apply gauze or small cotton ball on the affected area.

Schedule an appointment with your dentist. Never attempt to cut the wire yourself since you may accidentally swallow it or breathe it in.

You Feel Pain When You Bite

Pain when eating is indicative of cracked tooth syndrome. You should be able to notice this early on and have it remedied by having it crowned.

Here’s a tip when you have cracked tooth syndrome:

• It is important to prevent chewing with the tooth that hurts because the next time you do so may result in tooth loss. The crack may spread all the way through the tooth, causing it to break.

Getting a procedure early on for this condition keeps you from having a root canal or losing the tooth. By applying a crown, you’re stopping the tooth from cracking because it’s already stabilized by the crown.

Pain, when you bite, will not always be caused by the tooth. It may also be caused by muscle pain, which is a result of nighttime grinding. You have to book an appointment with your dentist, so they can properly diagnose your condition.

Final Thoughts

You can prevent your dental emergency from being a major problem if you know what to do. Procedures in keeping your oral health at this point are often easy to follow. You just have to be calm and have the presence of mind to get the help and emergency care equipment that you need.

Make sure you have dental insurance as well so you can regain your oral health without much hassle.