3 Dental Emergencies You Absolutely Can't Fix Yourself

Your dental health is quite a fragile thing, which means it's vital that you schedule regular appointments with your dentist to undergo a check-up. These routine dental exams should reveal if you're suffering from any tooth or gum problems and thus give you a far better chance of treating the issue and improving your oral health. That being said, there are a number of dental issues that can't wait until your next checkup. All of the following issues constitute a true dental emergency, and if you do suddenly experience any of them, it is essential that you immediately contact your dentist to avoid the problem from either worsening or resulting in permanent damage.

Having a tooth knocked is easily one of the biggest dental emergencies and one where it's absolutely vital that you seek immediate dental care. Although time is of the essence, if you care for the knocked-out tooth properly and immediately call your dentist, there is a decent chance you can save the tooth.

As soon as a tooth has been knocked out, you'll want to carefully pick it up by the crown—making sure not to touch the root—and then gently rinse it off with water. After rinsing it, place the tooth in a small container of milk to help preserve it until you reach the dentist's office. With any luck, your dentist may still be able to reinsert the tooth and have it 'take.' However, the longer the tooth is out, the lower the chances of saving it are.

If you simply chip your tooth, you can easily wait a few days to see the dentist as long as you're not in pain. However, a cracked or fractured tooth definitely constitutes a dental emergency. Severe cracks or fractures can damage the tooth's pulp, in which case you might need an emergency root canal in order to save the tooth. Alternatively, it might be possible to fix the cracked tooth with a crown.

As with a knocked-out tooth, you also need to contact your dentist immediately if you've chipped or fractured your tooth. In this way, you can then have the tooth x-rayed to determine the extent of the damage and whether or not the tooth can be saved. In cases of more severe trauma, your chances of saving the tooth are far greater if the problem is tackled immediately.

A persistent tooth ache that lasts for more than 24 to 48 hours also qualifies as a dental emergency. This type of tooth ache generally indicates a fairly serious dental problem, and obviously, you'll need to have the problem treated or the tooth removed in order to eliminate the pain. That being said, the real reason that this constitutes a dental emergency is that the pain could be caused by an abscess or severe tooth infection—both of which have the potential to be life-threatening and thus require immediate attention.

Severe bleeding of the gums or mouth, facial trauma or having something lodged deep in your gums are all additional issues that generally qualify as dental emergencies. As with the other emergencies, seeking immediate dental attention from a clinic like Apollo Dental Center is the only way to prevent these issues from wreaking havoc on your oral health. In this sense, preventative dental care is only one part of having a healthy smile, as it's also essential that you seek immediate care for any dental emergency.