What is classed as a dental emergency

What is classed as a dental emergency

Dental emergencies can occur at any time, so it’s best to be prepared in case. Here we’ll look at what counts as a dental emergency and what to do if one happens, so you can get the help you need as quickly as necessary.

What is classed as a dental emergency?

A dental emergency is a situation that requires immediate attention from a dentist to alleviate severe pain, prevent further damage, or address a suddenly serious condition related to the teeth, gums, or mouth.

Dental emergencies include:

• Sudden, severe toothache that won’t ease despite painkillers.
• Lost, broken or fractured teeth due to trauma to the mouth.
• Swelling of the gums, especially with a fever.
• Pus or weeping of the gums indicates a tooth infection (dental abscess).
• Bleeding from the mouth with no sign of stopping.
• Broken dental items, including braces and wires, may cause injury or further damage.
• Long-lasting pain or swelling that doesn’t improve within a few days.

There are many reasons why you may need to receive emergency dental treatment, so it’s important to look out for symptoms of serious problems, such as infections, so they can be dealt with quickly by a dentist and symptoms can be addressed before they worsen.

It’s also crucial to stay on top of your oral hygiene by maintaining a good dental hygiene routine as well as seeing your dentist and dental hygienist at least twice a year for check-ups to spot any issues before they become more serious.

How do you get an emergency dental appointment?

The best way to get an emergency dental appointment is by calling your regular dentist to see if they can see you as soon as possible. Many dental practices have slots for emergency dental appointments, so they may be able to fit you in quickly. However, if it’s outside of normal working hours, you can’t get an appointment with your dentist, but you can still call them to learn where the nearest emergency dentist is from their voicemail message.

Not everyone in the UK is registered with a dentist, however. So if you need an emergency dental appointment but don’t have a regular dentist, you should call 111 to find out more information on the nearest emergency dentists to you; 111 may even be able to make you an appointment or give you options according to which has the earliest available appointments.

Although your toothache, missing or bleeding tooth may feel like an urgent case, you should avoid going to A&E with dental emergencies, as they cannot help you with your symptoms and will turn you away.

The only reason to call 999 or go to A&E with a dental emergency is if your symptoms are life-threatening, i.e. if you or someone else has:

• Heavy bleeding that isn’t stopping.
• Severe swelling that’s making it difficult to breathe, speak or swallow.
• Collapsed or passed out due to a fever or high temperature related to a tooth infection.

But the quickest way to receive emergency dental appointments is rarely via the NHS.

How quickly can you get an emergency dentist appointment?

While NHS dental practices strive to see emergency cases within 24 hours, it’s not always possible due to increased demand for the services and fewer available services. So if you’re in severe discomfort and need to see an emergency dentist as soon as possible, you should simply search online for emergency dental practices close to you. That way, you can find a private dental practice, as they are more likely to have convenient appointment times available and enough time for the appointment to address the real problem, rather than offering temporary care until you can have a standard appointment to fix the issue.

In most cases, however, you won’t be offered an immediate appointment, so the dental receptionist will offer you advice to ease your symptoms while you wait for your appointment.

What can an emergency dentist do?

What an emergency dentist will do for you depends entirely on your individual circumstances. They will assess you over the phone to determine the urgency of your issue before examining your mouth and potentially taking an X-ray during your emergency appointment.

It may be possible and necessary to perform a procedure to ease your symptoms, such as extracting a problematic tooth; however, such procedures are not always appropriate, and the dentist may have to allow swelling to go down before performing any dental procedures.

If necessary, emergency dentists can:

• Investigate the cause of your toothache.
• Take X-rays.
• Perform root canals or drain abscesses.
• Fix broken teeth.
• Treat missing teeth, e.g. with stitches or gauze.
• Replace broken or loose dental bridges, crowns and fillings.
• Prescribe antibiotics.
• Extract teeth.

While emergency dentists can perform extractions and other procedures, their primary goal is to address urgent dental issues, which are more likely to involve draining pus to reduce swelling from an infection, issuing antibiotics and fixing chips or fractures that are painful. If you do need a tooth extraction or other, more invasive dental procedure, the emergency dentist will usually address your current symptoms to help manage the pain until you can be booked in for a routine dental appointment. This will then allow for more effective healing as your dental hygiene will be healthy when the procedure is performed.

How to relieve pain from a toothache at home

You shouldn’t seek to fix your dental woes yourself; however, you should try to manage your symptoms and relieve pain while you’re waiting to see a dentist.

Some of the best ways to relieve pain from a toothache yourself include:

• Taking painkillers like paracetamol and ibuprofen.
• Rinse your mouth with saltwater (one teaspoon of salt water mixed in a glass of warm water).
• Applying an ice pack or cold compress wrapped in a cloth to your face on and off.
• Chewing cloves gently to release the natural anaesthetic eugenol.
• Placing crushed garlic or chilled peppermint tea bags on the affected area for the antimicrobial and numbing properties.
• Maintaining good oral hygiene.

It’s normal to be somewhat sceptical of natural remedies, but some food items have naturally healing properties that are used in modern medicine, so if your toothache is so bad that the paracetamol isn’t sufficient to relieve the pain, it’s worth cleaning your mouth with saltwater and trying the crushed garlic clove to further ease your symptoms. However, the most important thing to remember is that bacteria are the main cause of infections and toothache, so you need to keep your mouth as clean as possible, which principally involves brushing, flossing and rinsing with mouthwash every day.

Emergency dental fees

Emergency dental care can be pricey, so it’s best to keep up with routine appointments to prevent the need, although preventing dental emergencies isn’t always possible. If you normally pay for your dental care on the NHS or privately, you’ll need to pay for your emergency appointment and again for any routine appointments needed afterwards.

Private emergency dental care can vary greatly in price depending on what service you require and where in the UK you see the dentist, so you can pay anything from £50 to several hundred pounds, depending on the specific circumstances.

Services such as repairing or installing dental bridges, crowns or dental implants can also vary in price, whether they’re done routinely or in emergency appointments, due to the variety of materials, complexity of the procedure and number of teeth that require dental care.

It’s important to note that NHS dental fees and treatment availability may be subject to eligibility criteria and may not cover all treatment options available privately. Additionally, private dental fees can vary greatly between practices, so it’s advisable to contact dental clinics directly for specific pricing information based on your individual needs and circumstances.

Need emergency dentistry? Contact the Eye and Dental Clinic!

If you need to see a dentist in an emergency or book a check-up, contact the Eye and Dental Clinic today! With our expert eye care team and our expert dental team, we have a wide range of services on offer to relieve your health problems.

For more information, check out our:

• Cancellation policy.
• Practice policies.
• Complaints policy.

Or read our latest news for blogs like: Is a Dental Bridge Permanent?

Back to Blog