Emergency Dental
After Hour Service Available By Appointment
Emergency Dental Services in Edson
Not every dental issue warrants an emergency appointment, however, we recommend evaluating your needs on the basis of three identifying questions. These questions are:
- Are you in severe pain that is not manageable with over the counter pain medications?
- Have your teeth experienced a traumatic event such as taking an impact?
- Are there physical signs that there is a concern in the teeth or soft tissues of the mouth?
What Are The Signs?
Your body has a very good system for calling out when there are concerns. For example, if you are experiencing severe pain, this indicates a likely problem inside the tooth or deeper in the jaw tissue. Traumas are the easiest way to determine whether you have a dental emergency on your hands, because these situations typically involve visible damage to the teeth or soft tissues which occurs as a result of a particular event.
Physical signs that you may have a dental emergency include the presence of pain along with a bad taste or foul odour, swelling of the gums or jaw or pockets of pus in the gum line (called pustules). If your body is giving you any of these indications, we recommend calling our office right away to be seen as soon as possible. As before, if a trauma occurs at a location that is not within a half hour of our dental office, we recommend seeing the closest available dental professional for assessment and treatment.
What To Do If You Have A Dental Emergency
We like to see you regularly in order to prevent issues that could be upcoming in your oral health, and to provide direction as to how to deal with these upcoming changes. Although that’s the preference, we know that it isn’t always possible. Emergencies happen, and when they do, we are there to help get you the treatment you need to address your acute symptoms and to prevent systemic health problems.
We keep spaces open in our appointment calendar to increase the likelihood of being able to treat emergent cases without delay. Despite this fact, we know that emergencies need to be accommodated by the nearest possible treatment center. If you are experiencing a dental emergency, get to the nearest dentist who can assist you. Dentists in Alberta are trained to a high standard of competence in emergent situations, and we would prefer you see another dentist for a dental emergency rather than delay treatment and ultimately negatively impact your chances of full and timely recovery.
Severe Tooth Pain
Oral Trauma
Common Dental Emergencies and Their Treatment
If you are experiencing a severe pain which comes on quickly and is relentless, you are experiencing a dental emergency. There are many causes of dental pain, including the presence of an infection of the root, the inner pulp or the gingival tissues. Have a look around the mouth to assess what could be causing the pain. Have you lost a filling? If so, placing a small amount of dental wax on the opening and keeping the mouth closed will help limit the amount of air that is able to get into the pulp of the tooth and irritate the nerve until you are able to see a dentist.
If there is severe pain without any visible cause on the surface, your dentist will utilize diagnostic imaging to give them more information about what is going on below the surface. Common causes of pain include infection, decay or other issues in the body that radiate into the nerve in and around the jaw.
Our Services
Abscess
Pain from an area of the mouth that presents with a pustule on the gums, or pus weeping from between the teeth and gums are an indication of dental abscess. Dental abscesses are critical to treat quickly in order to save the tooth and mitigate the possibility of the infection getting access to the blood stream where it can spread.
Knocked-Out Teeth
If your teeth have taken an impact and were broken or knocked out entirely, we don’t need to tell you that this is a dental emergency. But what should you do if this occurs?
- Stay as calm as possible to ensure that you don’t miss any of the important steps that follow
- Collect the tooth, or fragments of teeth, handling them from the crown only and never by the root system.
- Rinse them in clean water to flush away dirt and blood, but do NOT scrub away any of the valuable tissue that could be stuck on the tooth.
- Store tooth fragments in your cheek pocket, and let the nearest dental clinic know that you are on your way.
- If your tooth has been knocked out of the socket, try to gently replace it in the socket, clamping your jaw gently closed to stabilize the tooth and call the nearest dental clinic.
If you can’t replace the tooth in the socket, or, if you are concerned about swallowing fragments, put the tooth or tooth fragments in a clean vessel full of milk.
