What Is Considered in Emergency Dentistry?

When you call the dental office near me with a complaint about any dental issue, the dentist enquires about the problem to determine whether you need prompt treatment regardless of the hour of the day or can you wait until you can see your regular dentist. Dentists providing emergency dental care work beyond office hours and even on holidays and weekends. They provide services when all other dentists shut shop for the day because they want to help you alleviate the pain you experience and perhaps save your tooth from extraction or loss. Therefore whenever you call the dentist near you, they inquire into the problem you encounter and invite you over only if you need prompt treatment to save your tooth or prevent the problem from aggravating.

Dental emergencies are misleading and can confuse even the most experienced people. What you think might be a dental emergency may, in reality, be nothing more than requiring an urgent care appointment from your dentist instead of help from an emergency dentist. For example, if you chip your tooth when biting down on complex foods, you merely need a visit to your regular dentist by scheduling an urgent care appointment to have the chip repaired with dental bonding.

Similarly, a minor toothache doesn’t require a visit to the emergency dentist near me because you might have food particles trapped between your teeth and causing pain late in the evening. In such cases, you can use dental floss to remove the food particles besides over-the-counter painkillers to ease the discomfort you feel. However, the situation changes dramatically if you develop a severe toothache that needs prompt attention from the emergency dentist nearby to prevent aggravation of an existing condition in your teeth.

Why Do You Need to Visit Emergency Dentistry?

You undoubtedly need a visit to emergency dentistry if you confront a situation leaving you with a knocked-out tooth from accidents or impacts your mouth because it is the only alternative to avoiding seeking artificial tooth replacement solutions. In such cases, you must contact emergency dentistry in Petaluma, CA, for advice on managing your condition. The dentist at the facility will likely instruct you to collect the knocked out tooth, rinse it, place it between your cheeks and gums or a milk container and reach their office within 30 minutes to have the tooth reinserted into its socket.

If you successfully get to the dentist within the specified timeline, the dentist splints the tooth to the neighboring teeth and requests that you have the tooth monitored by them for about two weeks or more until your tooth roots reattach to your gums.

Sometimes leaving an untreated infection in your tooth also brings upon you the necessity to visit emergency dentistry. For example, you might develop a dental abscess from a cavity infecting the dental pulp. Dental abscesses are life-threatening and need prompt attention from emergency dentists because they cause excruciating pain, fever, and swelling in your face and mouth. Unless you have the dental abscess drained by a dentist and receive antibiotics to control the infection, the bacteria can spread to your body through your bloodstream. The bacteria can also affect the neighboring teeth and your overall health, making you susceptible to various health conditions.

When you visit the Petaluma dentist with a dental abscess, they drain the spot and provide antibiotics with painkillers to alleviate your discomfort and help save your tooth. However, they also recommend you undergo endodontic therapy as soon as possible to eradicate the infection within your tooth or prepare yourself for extraction and search for replacement solutions. Therefore when you are affected by these situations, you are left with no options but to visit emergency dentistry for treatments.

Is Emergency Dental Care More Expensive?

Emergency dental care is undoubtedly more expensive than visiting your regular dental care provider at the usual hours of the day. Emergency dentists provide voluntary services at odd hours of the day, weekends and holidays. They have an office to manage besides expenditure because their staff is also present to provide the services you need. Therefore you can expect to pay higher prices for any services offered by emergency dentists.

Most dental emergencies besides accidents causing tooth loss are entirely preventable by visiting your dentist for six-monthly appointments to care for your oral health. However, if you are concerned about the higher prices of emergency dentistry, why not begin visiting the Petaluma Dental Group for preventive dental visits that help you avoid dental emergencies altogether?