Often, the first sign of a dental emergency is the pain. Dental pain can be severe and you should never delay seeking treatment.

Dental emergencies

Our highly experienced and caring dentists at Smile Essential can provide emergency dental care for any of the following dental emergencies:

• Toothache
• Abscess
• Swelling
• Root canal
• Accidents and oral trauma
• Sports injuries to your mouth
• Swelling of the mouth or gums
• Damaged or broken denture
• Loose crowns

You should seek immediate advice if you experience any of the following:

• Severe bleeding dental bleeding as a result of an accident
• Severe dental pain
• Bleeding from an extracted tooth which you cannot stop.
• Sudden and severe swelling around the tooth, gum or mouth.

How to manage pain and discomfort

A toothache is often regarded as one of the worse pains a person can experience, but that doesn’t mean pain relief medication can’t be effective. Many over the counter pain relief medications such as paracetamol and ibuprofen are effective at treating the pain or at least reducing its intensity. There are also stronger pain relief medications available and when looking for the best way to deal with the pain it’s recommended that you gain advice from your local pharmacist, dentist or GP. Of course, you should always read the medication instructions to check they are suitable and if in doubt seek advice from an appropriately trained professional.

Old wives tales

Most old wives tales don’t work and can actually do more harm than good. Avoid strong concentrations of clove oil as this can burn and irritate the fragile gum tissue. Also soaking alcohol next to the tooth can irritate the gum and cause further discomfort.

Old wives tales you can try, include ice packs to reduce facial swelling and salt water rinses are excellent for healing gums.

Remember a dental emergency is often caused by avoiding regular dental health checks or delaying required treatment. Even if your symptoms subside you should still arrange an appointment for your local dentist to review.

Registered patients

We aim to see all of our registered patients on the same day, so long as you give us a call us before 10 am. On certain occasions, this may not be possible but we will offer advice on what to do and aim to give you an appointment within 24 hours.

If your emergency occurs outside of practice hours such as evening and weekends then we will have emergency information on our practice answer phone.

Unregistered patients

Even if you are not registered at our practice, we will still provide you with emergency dental care. We will treat any patient, on the same day if possible, for a fixed fee. While we may not be able to carry out permanent or definitive treatment, such as root canal treatment, at this appointment, we will be able to dress the tooth and do whatever is necessary to help relieve the pain. We will never leave a patient in pain. You may require follow-up appointments, either at our practice or with your own dentist if you are registered elsewhere.

If you are having a dental emergency outside of usual working hours and aren’t registered to a dentist then you should ring 111 for advice and guidance on your local service.

To speak to our team give us a call 0116 2891317