When to Visit an Emergency Dentist in San Clemente

There is only so much that an individual can do to prepare for a dental emergency. No matter what preventative measures one takes, there is always the chance of an accident damaging the teeth. In other cases, an infection can suddenly cause incredible pain in certain teeth and require emergency treatment. If someone falls and chips a tooth, it is crucial to seek professional treatment right away.

Available when you need emergency treatment

Since most people cannot plan for dental emergencies, the only time that an emergency dentist is not needed is for routine appointments and teeth cleanings. While we perform those and recommend scheduling them twice a year, we know how critical it is to be available for patients when they need help.

Thus, we always leave room in the schedule to help patients when they call and recommend you do so at the first sign of an emergency. In fact, adding our phone number to your phone contacts is a good idea since you never know where you will be when the emergency occurs.

Types of emergencies

Very often, dental emergencies are the type of things that no one can ever expect to happen. For example, we receive calls from parents who have rushed to the school after a child breaks a tooth on the playground. We help people that had a tooth knocked out while on a ski trip, taken care of patients whose crowns suddenly fell out in the middle of a birthday dinner, made time for patients who woke up with a toothache and much more.

These are just a few of the examples of how we have helped patients over the years but it all comes down to availability. We are here when patients need us so that regardless of what the emergency is or when it happens, they can get the help they need as quickly as possible.

What is a true dental emergency?

A lot of times people are afraid to call in an emergency because they are not sure if they are overreacting. The best thing to do is simply call our office, explain the situation and at that time, we can assess whether it is a true emergency and requires immediate care or if it would be okay to schedule an appointment in the next week.

In most cases, we have found that if patients are calling because they think it is an emergency, it actually is one. Some signs that there is an emergency requiring urgent help are:

• Bleeding from the mouth that is persistent and does not stop after biting down on gauze
• Dental pain that makes it too difficult to eat
• Teeth being cracked or chipped
• Teeth getting knocked out
• Physical damage to the structure of the face or mouth

In these situations, visiting the emergency room at a local hospital in San Clemente will not do a lot of good. They provide incredible care but are trained to treat the body, not the mouth, teeth or gums. As such, they can perform triage and prescribe pain medication but will ultimately refer patients to a dentist.

In our opinion, it is far better to visit an emergency dentist in the first place because that means receiving treatment faster and speeding up the recovery process. If you are suffering from a dental emergency, do not delay in calling Nina Basti DDS at (949) 201-4719. Let us know what is happening so that we can provide the urgent treatment you need to recover.