If you habitually visit your dentist every six months for check-ups, you can preserve the health and strength of your teeth and, therefore, prevent many types of dental emergency. Even if your teeth become lightly chipped or a painless crown needs re-cemenxating, these are not emergencies.

Treatment for such issues can booked in the usual fashion with a local dental clinic, but where exactly does the line fall between standard and emergency treatment in a dental setting?

Learn to detect a dental emergency

Distinguishing an emergency treatment from a non-emergency one can depend on you discerning which particular issues constitute dental emergencies. The Consumer Guide to Dentistry outlines various situations in which you could be suffering a dental emergency.

You should be concerned if you have recently taken a hit to the face or mouth, are bleeding from the mouth or are suffering from severe pain. Other worrying signs can include loose teeth as well as swelling, bulges or knots on gums – or swelling more generally in your mouth or facial area.

If you have any of these problems, you should immediately call your dentist and explain to them exactly what has occurred and how you feel.

Treatments for temporary use before you reach the dentist

Fortunately, dentists already prepare themselves for the possibility of needing to take on emergency cases, says Dental Guide. For this reason, if your dentist decides that you are indeed eligible for emergency treatment, they should be able to rearrange their schedule to accommodate you.

One good case in point is Ten Dental, the private dental treatment provider which dedicates a whole page of its website to dental emergencies. If you live in London, you can call Ten Dental on 020 3627 1113 and receive emergency treatment at a Balham, Wandsworth or Clapham practice.

In the wait to eventually see your dentist, you could drink iced water, a possible reliever of extreme pain resulting from hot or warm foods or beverages. However, if breathing in air causes pain, keep away from cold foods and beverages and remember to breathe through your nose.

What can you expect at the dental clinic?

It isn’t always obvious precisely how a dental emergency will be treated, as each case could be diagnosed on an individual basis. Possible treatments include composite filling to save broken teeth, which could instead be extracted and then replaced with artificial teeth like bridges or crowns.

If you are suffering from an infection, the dentist might deem root canal treatment the necessary remedy or carry out oral surgery. Rest assured that, at Ten Dental, dental care professionals have received training in managing dental emergencies and, hence, will be able to judge which treatment would be the most suitable for your particular problem.

Overall, you can deem a treatment to be a dental emergency treatment if it will be delivered immediately to save a tooth, alleviate severe pain or stop ongoing tissue bleeding. Dental emergency treatment is necessary for sudden oral damage which restricts or prevents oral activities like eating.