What is considered an emergency dental situation?

Dental Health Advice

Dental emergencies, in most cases, appear without much of a warning. If this is the case, seeing a dental professional as soon as possible is essential to reduce any long-lasting issues.

What is considered a dental emergency?

If you’ve had recent dental surgery or are experiencing pain in or around gums and teeth, you may be wondering what to do next, who to see and how to resolve the pain. This could include the need to book an emergency dentist appointment. There are some cases that would be better to be addressed at your nearest A&E department. We’ll cover those and the typical dental emergencies within this article.

 

Generally, the following are considered a dental emergency and the patient would need to book an emergency dentist appointment as soon as possible to resolve the issue at hand. Our dental professionals have outlined areas related to dental emergencies which we will cover.

 

  • Swelling of your gum, cheek or face which is spreading
  • Excruciating pain which is causing a lack of sleep or concentration
  • Mouth ulcers that haven’t healed after two weeks
  • Recently had a tooth extraction and are experiencing bleeding which lasts more than 20 minutes
  • Been following self-help advice for your problem but the pain is getting worse
  • A broken tooth, which is causing pain and damage to your cheek or tongue
  • Knocked-out a tooth
  • Controlled bleeding due to facial trauma

 

If any of these cases worsen, you should likely see an out-of-hours emergency dentist who can investigate the issue and advise the best solution.

 

The issues and problems which we would recommend going to your nearest A&E department would be the following:

 

  • Facial swelling affecting vision, breathing, problems swallowing or preventing you from opening your mouth
  • Trauma causing loss of consciousness, double vision or vomiting
  • Rapid and uncomfortable bleeding from your mouth

What isn’t considered a dental emergency?

There are some areas that aren’t quite urgent enough to be considered an emergency situation. If you are experiencing one of the following, you’ll likely need to book in with your dentist and receive advice from a professional at their next availability. If any of the following does progress into a more serious issue, book an emergency dentist appointment and receive the help you need.

Areas considered a non-emergency:

  • A minor toothache
  • Pain in your wisdom teeth
  • Sensitive teeth
  • Sensitive or bleeding gums
  • Sharp pain with biting
  • Mouth ulcers that have been present for less than 10 days
  • Orthodontic pain
  • A broken or chipped tooth
  • A loose or missing crown/veneer
  • Discomfort from dentures

Usually, dentists will be happy to address and provide useful advice in these areas within normal working hours. Visiting your nearest 247 with a non-emergency issue may lead to an expensive trip that you could have avoided.

Find your nearest 247 dentist

We want to make sure you’re able to be seen no matter the time of day which is why we’ve got a number of available round-the-clock clinics. Ranging from the south to further north of the UK, our clinics have quality dentists suited to non-emergency and emergency cases.

Feel free to get in touch and book an emergency dentist appointment with your nearest clinic – which could be Manchester or Sheffield, for example. We’ll be happy to address the issue at hand and provide important details as to how to achieve normal use of your mouth and surrounding areas.

Further dental advice

As well as providing support within our clinics, we also provide useful dental advice on our website. This section of the site comprising of blogs, tips and advice in all areas of dentistry. Find the piece of advice you need to get back on track as soon as possible.

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