Emergency dentistry to the rescue!
Las Cruces Dental Associates isn’t just here for you and your family when it’s convenient for us. Our team doesn’t just keep regular office hours. We appreciate that intense pain and trauma or injuries to the teeth do not just occur between eight and five. We know these things tend to arise during the most inconvenient of times. For this reason, we are proud to accommodate urgent matters promptly with responsive emergency dentistry care. When you call, we also provide trusted guidance on how to care for the problem in the interim – until you can get to our office in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Such guidance helps to get you out of pain quickly and may even “save” your natural tooth.
Also, know that, by its very nature, dental emergencies take on many different forms. If you are concerned about a change in your mouth, we encourage you to contact us right away. So, we are aware of it and can apply our expertise to deal with it properly.
Below are a few examples of common concerns that can require emergency care and related steps to take to support the best outcomes and quick relief from painful or distressing symptoms.
- When caring for an aching tooth, use warm and not hot water to rinse away any particles or substances that may be irritating your tooth. Apply light touch and gentle hand to floss away any potentially irritating and lingering food debris and substances.
- For teeth that are fractured, rinse your mouth and use either a cold compress or a makeshift one (such as a bag of frozen veggies) to help with swelling. Keep gauze in your care kit. It is useful to relieve sore spots and control any bleeding that may be present. Solutions like Save-A-Tooth® are helpful to preserve either parts of a broken tooth or a completely avulsed or knocked-out tooth. A container filled with milk is also a good storage solution if you don’t have specific dental products to ensure a moist environment for the broken tooth structure.
- Also, for avulsed teeth, when handling, only touch the white part of the tooth. You do not want to disturb the attached soft tissues. If possible, carefully place the tooth back in its socket. The faster we can see you to “reimplant” the tooth, the greater the odds of preserving it and avoiding replacing it with a bridge or implant.
- For existing restorations that fall out or are damaged, specialized dental cement or adhesives are ideal for stabilizing the filling or crown in the interim. However, even toothpaste and gum (sugar-free) can be helpful to hold the restoration in place.
- For trauma that involves your head or neck, visit the nearest ER or your family doctor as needed. The same goes for any tooth-related conditions that seem to have distressing symptoms that transcend the oral cavity. For instance, a serious infection or abscess can spread and become systemic – a medical emergency. Symptoms may include things like trouble swallowing and breathing.
With routine care at Las Cruces Dental Associates, you can avoid the disease and damage that may lead to the need for urgent dentistry services. However, we know that not all damage can be avoided or anticipated.
Our team in Las Cruces, NM, is truly here for you. Call us at (575) 339-1838 if you are due for a check-up, and be sure to keep our number handy for all family members. You never know when the need for emergency dental care can strike!
