Dental Emergencies

Scottsdale, Phoenix, and Payson, AZ.

We understand emergencies can happen anytime. If it’s while you’re eating, playing, exercising or participating in harmless activities it is important to take care your dental needs immediately. Permanent damage can take place including loss of your tooth or even worse, of all your teeth.

When To Call Your Dentist

If you are not sure your dental problem is an emergency but it hurts, it's an emergency. Even if it seems small, this is live tissue in your teeth and calling your dentist improves the odds of saving the damaged or injured tooth.

Even if there isn’t much pain and you fractured or chipped your tooth, this should be considered an emergency as well. The same is true with a lost filling or crown. Without the support of the filling or crown, it is possible for your tooth to become weak and break off or crumble.

What to do for Some Common Dental Problems

Toothache
Contact us as soon as you can to schedule a visit. Meanwhile, rinse with warm water and remove food particles with dental floss. If your mouth has swollen up, use cold compresses against your cheek to help reduce the swelling and relieve pain.

Chipped or Broken Teeth
Call or email our office for an appointment. Rinse with warm water. If you need to take a painkiller, use ibuprofen rather than aspirin. Hold a cold compress to your cheek or lip where the tooth is broken to help against pain and swelling.

Knocked-out Tooth
This is definitely an emergency, so please call us at once. You will have the best chance of saving your tooth if we can replace it within one hour of its being knocked out.

If you can retrieve your tooth, hold it by the top, visible part rather than the root. Rinse it if it is dirty but do not scrub it and do not remove any fragments attached to it. Handle it very gently.

See if you can replace it in its socket, but do not try to force it. If it won’t go back in, try to hold it between your gums and check. If this does not work either, store it in a small container of milk, preferably with a fitted lid for easy transport.

An Object Stuck Between Your Teeth
Gently use dental floss to try and remove it. Do not try to use anything sharp like a pin, as it could damage the tooth enamel or gums. If the object is firmly stuck, please contact our dentistry office for an appointment.

Lost Filling
Contact us as soon as you can to schedule a visit. Meanwhile you could buy some dental cement and see if you can temporarily replace the filling. Be careful what you bite or chew on, as the tooth without its filling will be weakened.

Lost Crown
As with a lost filling, call or email our dentistry office as soon as possible to set up an appointment. You could also try re-affixing the crown using over-the-counter dental cement. If it won’t stay on, just keep it in a safe place and bring it with you to our office. On no account use super glue to stick it on.

Broken Wires on Braces
Contact us to make an appointment. If the wire is poking into you, see if you can adjust its position. If you can’t, use some orthodontic wax (available at drug stores) to cover the wire’s tip. Do not cut the wire, as that creates the risk of swallowing it or breathing it in.

An Abscess
An abscess is an infection and can occur between a tooth and the gums around it or around a tooth root. Please call us as soon as possible because an abscess infection can spread, not just within the mouth, but to other parts of the body, including your heart.

Soft Tissue Injuries
Soft tissues in the mouth are the tongue, gums, lips and cheeks. An injury should be cleaned immediately with warm water. If the injury is severe, arrange to be taken to a hospital immediately. If the bleeding is under control, please call us to arrange an appointment.

Not all dental problems are emergencies. Common cosmetic problems can be worrisome in a different way and sometimes a smile makeover or even a full mouth reconstruction is the best answer.

If you are in Phoenix, Scottsdale or Payson, Arizona, please call or email our cosmetic dentistry office to schedule a complimentary consultation with Dr. Winterholler.