What Parents need to know about Dental Emergency
One fact about life that holds is that accidents will always happen. The focus should be what is done when it occurs, as this decides whether you lose or save a life. The same applies to losing or saving your child’s permanent tooth. Interestingly, studies show that children with poor dental health get below-average grades than students with healthy ones.
When your child needs a dental emergency, it is important to visit your dentist or an emergency room immediately. Although maintaining oral health through regular visits to any dentist near you is high up there as being precautious, but being prepared for possible dental health emergencies during your child’s life cannot be watered down. This article looks to intimate parents on the knowledge about dental emergencies and how they can go about handling them should they arise. Read on.
Register your entire family with a good dental office near you.
Because of how we can overlook the functions of our mouth, we tend to take oral health for granted until something goes wrong. If we don’t consciously make efforts to look after our dental health, it is more likely we would need urgent dental care in the nearest future. This makes registering your entire family with an emergency dental clinic inevitable. To make this easier, check the proximity of your home or work or children’s school to the nearest dental clinic and how you can achieve a healthy balance with your work schedules. However, you may not have to be a frequent visitor of the dental clinic if there are not severe cases of dental issues having possessed the knowledge of preventing dental emergencies you will see as we continue in this article.
Toothache that doesn’t go away
Pain or ache, especially when prolonged, is a way our body tells us that something is not right. Toothaches could be an obvious sign your child needs to get to the dentist. However, before going to the dentist, you must be able to answer these questions; is your child always complaining about a sore tooth. Does it seem like the pain doesn’t go away and then resurfaces after some time, say a day or two? It could be that there is food caught between the teeth or in the gums, causing your child’s pain. To be sure this is all, you can get your child to gargle with warm water to get hold of whatever could be stuck in between their teeth. Then you can help them to floss. At this point, your child is supposed to feel some relief. However, if the pain persists, this is an invitation to scheduling an appointment with your dentist.
Broken/Chipped/Knocked-out Tooth
It could have been your child had a fall impacting their tooth, which made it break or fall out. First, ensure that there are no more injuries. If it’s a baby tooth, you shouldn’t try to re-implant it because it could damage the adult tooth growing underneath. Save any pieces. Make your child gargle with warm water. Place a cold bag on the outside of their mouth, and apply gauze to any bleeding. If the tooth was knocked out, put the tooth in a small cup of milk or water with a pinch of salt. You have to consider time because the tooth has to be re-implanted by a dentist within an hour. If you are not able to see a dentist straight away, you may be directed to urgent dental care service.
Swelling
Swelling could be caused by anything from a side effect of dental treatment to gum disease. You have to seek treatment from your dentist, especially when it is due to the latter. This will curb the problem from progressing further. However, if the problem seems to be from the former, as a rule of thumb, you can try to ice your child’s cheeks in ten-minute increments to keep the pain and likely inflammation at bay. In addition, you can let your child try a saltwater rinse to deal with any bacteria that may be causing any irritation.
Bleeding
Oral bleeding may be a sign of poor dental hygiene. Plaques build up along the gum. It contains bacteria that may spread to other parts of the mouth, thereby causing tooth decay or gum disease. It could also occur from your child’s tooth being knocked out or chipped by accident. A little bleeding may not require going to an emergency dentist near you, but if it is excessive and refuses to stop, it is considered an emergency, and a dentist should be visited straight away. However, in the case the bleeding is minimal, you should closely monitor your child’s oral hygiene over a period, ensure brushing at least twice daily. Then observe if there are changes.
Most dentists in Calgary reserve time in their daily schedules for emergency patients. Get through to the one nearest to you and provide adequate details about your dental needs.