If you hit your mouth during a fall or traffic accident, a tooth could easily break or crack. While it’s important to see a dentist as soon as you can to help preserve the tooth, there are ways to care for it until you can get to your dentist’s office. Here are three tips for taking care of a tooth injury.
Assess Injury
After the fall or accident, you should assess how severe the injury is in case you need to be taken to an emergency room instead of an emergency dentist in Kalamazoo, MI. If you are bleeding excessively, feel dizzy or disoriented, or have memory loss, go to the hospital as you could have a serious head injury. If the only injury is to your teeth, gently rinse your mouth to get a better look at them.
Fractured Tooth Care
If you crack or fracture a tooth, there isn’t anything that you can do at home to take care of it. Sometimes it will not hurt until you bite down on it while eating or drink something hot or cold. However, if it continually hurts, you need to see an emergency dentist for an assessment in case there is an injury to the nerve or blood vessels.
Broken Tooth Care
If a tooth is broken, you should gently rinse your mouth with warm water and hold some gauze on the area if it’s bleeding. If the bleeding doesn’t stop after about 10 minutes, you can hold a tea bag against it to stop it. Apply an ice pack on the cheek and lips over the broken tooth to stop swelling and help with the pain. Then, look up Website to get an emergency dental appointment.
An emergency dentist should be able to save your tooth if you are able to see one soon after a tooth injury.