Emergency Dentistry FAQs
Dental emergencies: what to do right now
If a tooth has been knocked out, you have roughly 30 minutes to give it the best chance. Call us first and read the rest afterwards.
Go to a hospital emergency room, not a dentist, if
- Swelling is making it hard to breathe or swallow, or it has spread toward your eye or down your neck
- Bleeding will not stop after twenty minutes of firm pressure
- You may have broken your jaw, or you were knocked out or feel confused after a blow to the face
- You have a fever with facial swelling and feel genuinely unwell
Those are airway and trauma problems. A dental office is the wrong building for them. Everything else on this page we can treat here.
What counts as a dental emergency
The test is simple: is it getting worse, is it bleeding, or can you not sleep through it? If yes to any, it is an emergency and we will find you a slot today.
Call us the same day for
- A knocked-out adult tooth. This is the one where minutes matter
- A tooth pushed loose or shoved out of position
- Swelling of the face or gum, especially with a bad taste. Likely an abscess
- Pain that wakes you at night or does not respond to painkillers
- A tooth broken with a pink or red dot showing in the middle. That is the nerve
- Bleeding after an extraction that has not settled
- A crown or filling lost off a tooth that is now sharp or painful
A chip with no pain, a lost crown that does not hurt, or a dull ache that comes and goes can usually wait a day or two. Call anyway and we will tell you honestly which yours is rather than making you guess.
A knocked-out adult tooth: the three steps
Do these in order. The tooth is most likely to survive if it is back in the socket within half an hour.
- Pick it up by the crownHold the chewing part, never the root. The fibers on the root are what reattach, and rubbing them off is what usually costs the tooth.
- Rinse briefly, do not scrubIf it is dirty, rinse for a couple of seconds in milk or saline. Not tap water, and never soap, alcohol or a toothbrush.
- Put it back, or keep it in milkPush it gently into the socket the right way round and bite on a clean cloth to hold it. If you cannot face that, put it in a cup of milk, not water, which kills the root cells. Then call us and come straight in.
Never replant a baby tooth. Pushing it back can damage the adult tooth forming above it. Bring your child in, but leave the tooth out.
Why the 30 minutes matters
A knocked-out tooth is not held in by the bone directly. A thin layer of living cells on the root surface, the periodontal ligament, is what reattaches. Those cells start dying within about fifteen minutes of drying out.
That is the whole reason behind the advice. Milk works because its salt and sugar concentration is close to the body’s own, so the cells survive. Tap water does the opposite. It is too dilute, and the cells burst.
It is also why we say never scrub the root. Scrubbing removes the exact tissue the tooth needs to survive. Replanted quickly, the odds are good. After an hour dry, they are poor.
Holding the pain until you get here
- Ibuprofen works better than paracetamol on dental pain because the problem is inflammation. Taking both together, at their normal doses, works better than either alone. Assuming you can take them.
- A cold compress on the outside of the cheek, twenty minutes on and twenty off.
- Sleep propped up on an extra pillow. Lying flat raises the pressure and is why toothache is worse at night.
- Warm salt water rinses after meals, gently.
What not to do
- Do not hold aspirin against the gum. It burns the tissue and does nothing for the tooth.
- Do not put heat on a swollen face. Heat spreads infection.
- Do not take leftover antibiotics from a previous course. Antibiotics do not cure an abscess. They hold it back while the cause goes untreated, and the pain returns worse.
- Do not try to lance a swelling yourself.
Common questions
Will I be seen today?
We keep time aside each day for emergencies. Call as early as you can and tell whoever answers what has happened, so it is triaged properly rather than booked as a routine check.
The pain stopped on its own. Am I fine?
Not necessarily. Pain that stops abruptly after being severe often means the nerve has died, and the infection carries on quietly. Get it looked at.
Can you just give me antibiotics over the phone?
No, and no dentist should. Antibiotics do not treat the cause of a dental abscess. The infection needs draining or the nerve treating; antibiotics are an occasional addition, not the treatment.
I am not a patient here. Will you still see me?
Yes. Emergencies are seen whether or not you have been here before, and being seen once does not commit you to anything else.
What if it happens at the weekend?
Call the office number and follow the instructions on the message. If it is an airway, bleeding or trauma problem, use the list at the top of this page and go to a hospital instead.
What will it cost?
You get the cost of the emergency visit before we start, and a written plan for anything that follows. Emergency and restorative treatment is often covered at least partly by insurance. We check before you commit, and there is financing if the total is awkward.
Could I have prevented it?
Sometimes. Trauma is bad luck. But most abscesses and split teeth were a small cavity or a cracked filling once, which is the argument for regular exams rather than for feeling bad about it.
More detail on specific injuries: knocked-out tooth, abscessed tooth, emergency services.
Call first, then book
- (310) 860-6969Someone here answers.
- Request a visitWe will call to confirm.
- Pick a time onlineChoose your own slot.