Dental emergencies happen all the time. It can be anything from an accident that leads to missing a tooth, to a severe toothache that occurs unexpectedly. Whatever the case, you’ll often be in a lot of pain and need to get instant relief. With any dentist emergency, it can happen in the middle of the night when your local dental clinics might be closed. That’s when it becomes important to find your emergency dentist Sydney.
An emergency dentist specialises in dental pain that results from unanticipated dental problems. As such, an emergency dentist in Sydney operates on a 24-hour basis so you can get help for your pain at any time of day. Our Chatswood emergency dentist keeps appointments free so we can be available at flexible times to help you.
Dental emergencies by nature require immediate action. They often pose an immediate risk to your health, so the sooner they are addressed the higher your chances of getting the best outcome for your oral health. It can involve serious bleeding that may lead to loss of blood, or in more critical situations it can determine the very fate of your tooth.
Not all dentists will offer emergency dental services; treating dental emergencies outside of business hours normally require particular professional care. So it’s important to know where to get an emergency dentist near you.
Common dental emergency scenarios
A tooth problem can arise at any hour of the day. It doesn’t check with you before interrupting your schedule (or your sleep!). A sharp toothache could wake you up in the middle of the night and it can always be too agonising to bear even for a few hours. So in this article, we share the common tooth emergency scenarios plus their causes and what you can do when that happens.
- Chipped tooth
Perhaps you got a bit reckless with your tooth and bit a hard nut or non-food objects like a bottle top. That can chip your tooth and cause sharp pain. Some people open soda bottles with their teeth as a habit, this is highly discouraged. Always be sure to use a bottle top opener and not your teeth.
The hard object can chisel your tooth especially if you already have a developing cavity or some weak part.
Chewing on a hard food when you have a weak or carving tooth can also result in fragmenting of the tooth. And this will cause severe pain if the pulp or gums are affected. An emergency dentist in Sydney would be the person to contact for that kind of problem.
If a chipped tooth doesn’t affect the pulp, it would not necessarily be considered an emergency because it doesn’t threaten the person’s health and well-being. Some people, however, desire quick action on a chipped tooth due to the cosmetic effects such tooth has on the victim’s smile.
Nonetheless, you don’t need a trip to the emergency room for issues that are purely cosmetic. Contact your dentist to schedule an appointment as soon as the injury occurs.
- Chronic pain
If you’ve sustained some mild toothache for a while, the slightest stimuli can trigger it into a sharp or acute pain that you cannot withstand for any number of hours. Since regular dental treatments require that you schedule an appointment beforehand, you may want to find an emergency dentist even if the pain occurs at daytime.
- Broken or missing tooth
Tripping and falling or any form of an accident involving hitting your head or mouth against a hard object can break your tooth. This situation may cause a lot of bleeding and requires immediate care.
In the off chance that this occurs at night, you’d need an emergency dentist as most regular practitioners won’t be available till daybreak.
If you experience such a dental emergency at daytime, however, consider calling your oral surgeon or dentist to see if they can examine you without delay.
What to expect during and after a dental emergency
Your emergency dentist will administer a stop-gap procedure that helps stop the pain. This initial treatment is also focused on preventing any further risk that the issue could cause to your dental and overall health.
As such, dental emergencies require follow-up treatment in most cases by the dentist or other specialists depending on the nature of the problem.
If you lose a tooth, you may require some form of tooth replacement procedure. It would, therefore, be necessary to check in with an oral surgeon to explore options such as dental implants.
There may be more interventions to be performed after a dental emergency. These will depend on the complexity of your situation.
While most cases may involve simple dental procedures, severe cases such as fractured teeth and sometimes jaws would require an oral surgery.
How to prepare for a dental emergency
Just ensure you have contact information for your emergency dentists Sydney that you can reach on call. You never know when the dental emergency will hit, so be sure to carry with you the contact information for these dental professionals at all times and seek treatment as soon as possible to increase your chances of getting the best treatment outcome in the event of an emergency.
Consider NO-GAP check-ups and cleaning services
Dental services can be costly. And since you can never tell how much your treatment will require in the event of an emergency, it’s extremely important that you find emergency dentists or dental clinics that offer NO-GAP services.
A No-Gap policy means that you will not pay any out-of-pocket expenses for certain treatments depending on which health fund you are with and the level of bulk-billing car you have.
Private Health Funds will pay cover you completely for all certain dental treatments without having to incur any out of pocket costs. Here are some common services that you can access at No-Gap: scaling and tooth polishing, comprehensive examination, dental x-rays as well as fluoride dental treatment.
Your no-gap treatment can be anything from tooth removal to root canal treatment, dental implants to crowns and surgery. Once you have contacts for emergency dentists or dental clinics that offer NO-GAP treatments, check-ups and cleaning; you can rest assured that you’ll be safe in the event of an emergency.