Common Dental Issues Treated in Emergency Dentistry
Dental care offers a range of dental services, all categorized under different specialties. When you have a typical dental problem, seeking dental help never seems to be the problem. However, dental emergencies get most patients worked up.
Determining whether your oral problem is bad enough to pass as an oral emergency is the hard part. The last thing you want is to show up at a dental ER and have an emergency dentist in Richmond TX refer you back to general dentistry. To avoid such things from happening to you, it is always safe to know what kind of oral problem you have and how you can have it treated. Still, it is not all up to you, but up to your attending dentist.
What Is Emergency Dentistry?
It is an area of dentistry that helps diagnose and treat urgent and often severe dental problems that patients have. In essence, it caters to all emergency dental issues that patients have. Most of the patients that require the services of an emergency dentist in Sugarland TX often have threatening health issues, most to their oral cavity, and others even life-threatening.
Telling apart a typical dental problem from an emergency issue is not always as straightforward as you would imagine. The reason is that most dental emergencies erupt from simple dental problems that have progressed in severity. Therefore, how keen you are to keep tabs on your oral health will affect how quickly you detect dental issues and have them treated before they are dental emergencies.
How Can You Tell You Have An Oral Emergency?
The very definition of an emergency is urgency. If your oral problem is too pressing that you cannot seek to have a second to spare, it is an obvious tell-sign. The following questions, however, can best help you understand what kind of oral problem you are having:
- How severe is the pain? – most dental emergencies cause a lot of pain for patients. The severity of your pain, often beyond what you can manage at home, should tell you when you need to contact an emergency dentist near you.
- Does the problem worsen by the hour? – progression is a big indicator that things are quickly getting out of hand. If your problem seems to worsen as you go, you cannot handle it without the help of an emergency dentist in 77469.
- Can you continue with your normal life routines? – in most cases, dental emergencies are so severe that patients have to pause on other aspects of their life. Sleeping can even become a problem thereof.
- Can you wait to get it treated? – most dental emergencies are inconvenient regarding when they happen. The problem can escalate during the wee hours of the night, or right as you are conducting a meeting at work. The inconvenience caused by a typical dental problem can be downplayed, until a later time. However, the pressing nature of an oral emergency makes it hard for you to wait another minute without immediate treatment.
Common Dental Issues Marked as Oral Emergencies
The line between a typical non-urgent dental problem and an urgent dental need is thin. While your dentist is best placed at properly diagnosing your issue, you can easily tell whether you have a dental emergency by considering the following commonly agreed-upon oral emergencies:
- Prolonged and severe bleeding – prolonged bleeding in your mouth can be an indication of a serious periodontal infection that could be slowly collapsing your oral system. When the bleeding is severe, however, it is usually an indication of a significant injury that has left a notable open wound in your mouth. Either way, it is an emergency oral problem.
- Missing tooth – while it always depends on how you have lost a tooth, a missing tooth is never a good sign. If it has been knocked out through an injury, or simply due to a progressive infection, you need to have it treated quickly.
- Excruciating pain – pain is often a sign that something is wrong with your body. If it is bearable, over the counter painkillers can help you get through several days. However, dental emergencies are often characterized by severe levels of pain, often unbearable for patients.