Common Dental Emergencies We Handle
There are many dental emergencies we handle on a regular basis, including:
- Toothaches
- Broken, chipped or cracked tooth
- Loosened or knocked out tooth
- Infection in tooth or jaw
- Impacted or infected wisdom teeth
- Tooth extractions
- Broken, chipped, or lost restorations
This is not a comprehensive list. If you want to know whether we handle a particular emergency, please call (585) 244-3337 to ask.
Why a Dentist Is Better for Emergency Dental Services
If you are facing a emergency dental situation, a dentist will give you better care for many reasons. First, of course, a dentist is a trained specialist in dealing with your mouth, including the teeth, gums, and jaw. There are many aspects of your dental care that doctors, even emergency doctors, may not be prepared to respond to. They won’t for example, be able to deal with your restorations, such as lost dental crowns or dentures.
A dentist is likely going to consider your emergency more urgent than emergency room doctors. With the possible exception of a serious tooth infection, many dental emergencies will be demoted during triage behind heart attacks, drug overdoses, car accidents, and other situations. Emergency room doctors might not consider saving your tooth or restoration a significant priority.
Finally, emergency room doctors might have just getting you out of their department as their chief priority. They might not be concerned about the long-term ramifications of their treatment option. If you have an infected tooth, you might be prescribed antibiotics that might provide little or only temporary relief. Or they might just pull your tooth. If you have a toothache, you might be given medication rather than getting your cavity filled.
In many cases, you’ll then be told to follow up with your dentist, anyway, since the emergency has passed. But in many cases, the damage may already be done. A tooth that might be saved is lost, and the extraction might not leave the jaw suitable for dental implants. A dentist, on the other hand, will know how to save a tooth, and, if it has to be extracted, will perform the extraction in a way compatible with future dental implants, if possible.
Call Us for Emergencies
At Contemporary Dentistry, we are happy to help ensure you get the best possible care for your dental emergencies. On the phone, we can listen to a description of your dental emergency and recommend when you might actually be better off going to the emergency room at a hospital.
If you would like to learn whether we can help with your emergency dental problems in Rochester, please call (585) 244-3337 or email us for an appointment at Contemporary Dentistry on South Clinton Ave between Elmwood and Westfall in Brighton.
