Emergency Dental Care

Emergency Dental Care, Toothache or Trauma, refers to pain in and around the teeth and jaws.

• You may feel toothache in many ways. It can come and go or be constant. Eating or drinking can make the pain worse, particularly if the food or drink is hot or cold.
• The pain can also be mild or severe. It may feel “sharp” and start suddenly. It can be worse at night, particularly when you’re lying down. A lost filling or broken tooth can sometimes start the pain.
• It can also sometimes be difficult to decide whether the pain is in your upper or lower teeth. When a lower molar tooth is affected, the pain often feels like it’s coming from the ear.
• Toothache in other upper teeth may feel like it’s coming from the sinuses, the small, air-filled cavities behind your cheekbones and forehead.
• The area of your jaw close to the infected tooth may also be sore and tender to touch.

Broken or Knocked out Tooth

If you knock out a tooth, you should:

• Find the tooth
• Hold it by the crown (the white bit that sticks out of the gum)
• Lick the tooth clean if it’s dirty, or rinse it in cold water
• Put it back into position if possible (adult teeth only); never try to re-insert a baby tooth (see below)
• Bite on a clean handkerchief or tea-towel to hold the tooth in place
• See a dentist as an emergency as soon as you can

If you can’t put the tooth back in position, put it in cold milk and see a dentist as soon as possible.

The sooner a knocked-out tooth is re-implanted, the more likely it is to embed itself back into the gum, although you will likely need follow up treatments to try to keep the tooth.

If your child knocks out a baby tooth, you should not try to re-implant it because you may damage the adult tooth growing underneath. Take your child to see a dentist as soon as you can, but if they are not in pain there is no great urgency. If there is moderate to severe soft tissue trauma/bleeding to the mouth you should take them to A&E.

For teeth slightly chipped and NOT causing pain or trauma to the mouth, simply ring for a normal appointment for a repair. No great harm is caused to the tooth if it is not repaired straight away. If the break is large and cannot be repaired with a filling, other options are available, e.g. Root Canal Treatment/Crown etc.