It is expected to feel worried or panicked when something is not right with your smile. So, here the question arises: how will you know what comes under a dental emergency? A dental emergency is when there is a sudden need to consult a dentist and solve your issues. However, not everything under the sun is a dental emergency that would require immediate treatment.
If you want to know what comes under a dental emergency, then you are at the right place. In this article, we will understand what things require emergency treatment and how you can deal with them in Van Nuys. You can consult a Van Nuys, CA dentist to know more about the first aid treatments you can undertake in an emergency.
What is a Dental Emergency?
A dental emergency is a situation of oral issues that requires immediate attention to alleviate the severe pain, bleeding, or loss of the tooth. There might be some dental emergencies that cannot wait for regular dental appointments as they pose a risk to your health and oral functions. It becomes essential to visit the doctor and get treatment. So, it is vital to take care of such oral issues and understand their signs and symptoms so that you can react immediately.
How to Understand Dental Emergency Situations?
Whenever we feel pain, we tend to label it as an emergency. While this is not the case every time, you can ask your dentist about it because not everything is severe enough to have a visit to the dentist. However, there are some general dental emergencies that you must know so that you can treat them quickly whenever such an emergency arises.
Some dental emergencies include knocked-out teeth, persistent toothache, abscessed teeth, broken and cracked teeth, soft tissue injuries, and other such situations. If you are facing issues like this, then it is a dental emergency, and you must consult your doctor to treat them as soon as possible. There must be appropriate treatment for these issues so that you can come out of the pain and suffering and have healthy teeth.
What are the Steps to Take in a Dental Emergency?
Stay Calm
The first thing that you must do in a dental emergency is to stay calm; if you panic, it will not help you to reduce your pain; instead, it will make it difficult for you to take practical action. So, stay calm, communicate your problems to the dental healthcare professionals, and take the initial medications.
Control Bleeding
If there is any injury, trauma, broken or fractured tooth, then in this case, there will be bleeding in the gums. So, in this situation, the first thing that you must do is to control the bleeding. You can use a clean cloth or a gauze to apply pressure to the bleeding area. It will help you to stop the bleeding quickly. However, if the bleeding persists for more than 10-15 minutes, then it would be better to consult a doctor as soon as possible.
Manage Pain
If you are far from the doctor, you can use over-the-counter medicines to manage the pain. Additionally, you can use cold compresses to reduce swelling and alleviate discomfort.
Seek Immediate Medical Care
Once you take some initial steps to cure your pain, you must consult an emergency dental clinic as soon as possible. Explain the situation to the doctor clearly and follow their instructions to solve your problem. If there are any other signs and symptoms, you must also convey them to your doctor.
Understanding what constitutes a dental emergency helps you cure it as soon as possible and prevent other health complications. So, these are some dental emergencies that require prompt action and dental care.
