Reasons why You Shouldn't Ignore Dental Emergencies

Despite brushing and flossing regularly and visiting your dentist for routine dental checkups and cleanings, there’s still a risk of developing dental problems. The situation is even worse if you experience sudden or severe dental symptoms. Since dental emergencies can occur at any time for many reasons, having an emergency dentist near you ensures that you receive urgent and reliable dental care.

Similarly, your ability to distinguish between emergency and non-emergency dental cases can help avoid unseen complications that could be detrimental to your oral and overall health. In this article, let’s explore the risks of delaying dental emergency treatment.

Common signs of dental emergencies

Before we dive into reasons why dental emergencies should not be ignored, below are common signs and symptoms of a dental emergency:

• Severe tooth or oral pain that doesn’t settle even after taking pain medication
• Severe swelling in the face, gums, or jaw
• Loose or knocked-out tooth
• Persistent or worsening oral bleeding
• Severe soft tissues injuries in the mouth
• Severe tooth damage like chips, cracks, and breaks
• Dental abscess or infection

Sometimes these symptoms can be accompanied by fever, headaches, or difficulty breathing or swallowing. You must seek emergency dental care immediately if you or your loved one are experiencing a dental emergency.

Complications of ignoring dental emergencies

Based on your condition, delaying dental emergency care can lead to serious consequences, including:

• Severe pain and discomfort

Dental emergencies can be very painful and uncomfortable. Typically, the major consequence of neglecting dental pain is more pain. Whether you’ve severe tooth decay, gum disease, or have knocked out your tooth, it’s essential to seek dental care as soon as possible. Delaying treatment will only make your situation worse.

• Tooth loss

You may be playing your favorite game with friends only to fall or receive a blow to your jaw, chipping, breaking, or knocking out your tooth. The sooner you can get to the dentist, the best chance of saving your tooth. Saving your tooth after 1 to 2 hours may be impossible.

For teeth damage like chips and cracks, delaying treatment can expose your tooth to new fractures and infections, significantly lowering your chances of saving the tooth.

• Dental infections

Teeth damage like chips and cracks exposes the softer inner parts of your tooth to bacterial infections. Delaying treatment can cause an infection in the tooth’s pulp, leading to severe pain, swelling, and tooth loss. The pulp contains the tooth’s blood vessels, nerves, and other connective tissues.

• Dental abscess

Untreated severe gum disease or tooth decay can cause a painful pus-filled pimple to develop around or in your gums. A dental abscess often indicates a serious infection, and it’s often accompanied by fever, bad breath, swelling, or severe pain.

• Gum disease

Untreated dental emergencies like tooth infections and abscesses can infect the gum tissues, causing inflammation, bleeding, redness, and pain. Untreated gum disease can lead to complications like tooth and bone loss.

• Chronic health problems

Chronic health problems are some of the long-term effects of untreated dental issues. For instance, untreated tooth or gum infections can spread to vital body parts like the brain, respiratory system, and cardiovascular system, increasing your risk of developing pneumonia, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s.

Do you have a dental emergency? Here’s what to do.

When faced with a dental emergency, the first action should be to call your dentist. If your dentist isn’t available, visit an emergency dentist near you. As you wait for help, consider the following remedies:

• Take pain medications like ibuprofen to minimize pain and discomfort.
• Apply a cold compress or ice packs to reduce pain and swelling.
• If your tooth is knocked out, gently rinse it and try placing it back in the socket. If not possible, preserve it in a glass of milk.
• To control bleeding, place a clean gauze on the affected area.

Visit Our Office for Emergency Dentistry in Randolph, MA

Are you or your loved one experiencing serious dental symptoms like severe pain, swelling, bleeding, infection, or tooth loss? Contact and book a dentist appointment at Randolph Dental Group for more information.