Andrew Jacobs, General Manager
What constitutes a dental emergency?
One of the biggest questions we get is what constitutes a dental emergency. There are three main things that I would consider a dental emergency. One, if you have any severe swelling of the neck, jaw, or face, that is definitely a dental emergency. If you're having any severe pain with a fever around your jaw or a specified tooth area, that is a dental emergency. Or simply, if you just can't sleep because your tooth is hurting you that badly, that's a dental emergency.
If something is bothering you enough to severely alarm you, it's an emergency. You should definitely seek medical care or dental care as soon as possible.
Is hot or cold tooth sensitivity an emergency?
Another key indicator would be hot and cold sensitivity. If you drink something hot or really cold and it gives you one of those intense zingers, that's a pretty good indication that a dental emergency is going to happen soon or it's happening right now.
How can you prevent dental emergencies?
A good place to start in a conversation about dental emergencies is simply how to prevent them from happening. Whenever it happens, it's a really high stress, very high impact on your life event.
The easiest and most straightforward way to prevent dental emergencies is just to come in for your six-month or your three-month dental cleaning or a dental checkup so that your dental provider can catch anything while it's early. If a dentist or dental provider diagnoses you with treatment, you really have to get it done.
Dental emergencies often come about from postponing or lingering on diagnosed treatments such as cavities, root canals, crowns, and extractions. Our mouth is an ever-changing area. If you let these things progress, it'll eventually lead to a dental emergency.
What should I do if I break or chip a tooth?
If you happen to break or chip a tooth, the next thing you should do depends on the type of break that happened.
The most dangerous type of break or fracture that happens on a tooth is a vertical one. When it's not horizontal, but it goes up and down and that break goes into your gum line or into your root. If that happens and you don't feel any pain, that's a really big deal. What has happened is that your tooth has fractured directly in half, and your nerve is now disconnected from your body. That's a really big deal. You need to seek emergency care right away, either at a dentist or an emergency room, and they can help you get to a dentist as soon as possible.
If your tooth has broken horizontally or left to right and you feel a little bit of pain, that's a good thing. That means that your nerve is still alive and it's still attached to your body. Honestly, the same thing. You need to go see a dentist as soon as possible so that he or she can diagnose the severity of that fracture.
If you have chipped a tooth, as in a little piece or edge of your tooth has chipped off along the biting part of your tooth, typically that's more cosmetic. That's generally not a dental emergency if it's just a small chip on the edge of the biting surface of your tooth. Still for cosmetic reasons and also diagnostic reasons, you should still see a dentist as soon as possible.
Sometimes it's really hard to tell if you have a hairline fracture along that tooth as well, meaning it's really hard to see. You might have a little chip, a visible chip, but there could also be a hairline fracture going vertical. You could have a severely weakened tooth. If that weakened tooth then gets fractured horizontally or vertically, then you have a full-blown dental emergency.
To recap, any sort of chip, break, or fracture, just go see your dentist right away.
When would I need an emergency dental extraction?
There are a couple of scenarios where you need an emergency dental extraction of a tooth. Unfortunately, that is one of those things that cannot be diagnosed over the internet or over a video. If you have tooth pain that might constitute an emergency, you need to go see a dental care professional. If they diagnose and decide clinically that you need an extraction, then of course, you need a dental extraction.
A lot of times, however, extractions can be totally prevented. You can keep your tooth. You might simply just need a root canal. Not that it's a simple procedure, but at least you would get to keep your natural tooth.
Other than that, it's really impossible to tell if you need an extraction, a root canal, or maybe even just a filling. It really depends on what's going on. If you think you might need an emergency extraction, just go see a dental care professional, and they will help you decide what is right. It could be a root canal, could be an extraction, could be a wide variety of things.
Does Sea Summit Dentistry offer emergency care?
As you might have noticed on our website, we do offer emergency care here at Sea Summit Dentistry. We offer a wide variety of same-day services, including same-day consultations, same-day x-rays, extractions, root canals, everything here we offer same-day.
It's a really big reason why we're open so early and we're open so late. 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. every day of the week to help accommodate emergency patients just like yourself. Feel free to give us a phone call at (949) 787-3378, and we can get you scheduled as soon as possible.
How much does an emergency dental visit cost?
One of the biggest barriers that prevent people from coming into any dental office when they have a dental emergency, the first thing they worry about is the cost. How much is this going to break the bank? The best way to save yourself a boatload of money when it comes to dental emergencies is to not let them become emergencies in the first place.
Hindsight is 2020, but as I mentioned earlier in this video segment, dental emergencies often happen because the patient, such as yourself, probably postponed diagnosed treatment that could have just simply been a one-surface or two-surface filling. Not that we can go and change the past, but for future reference, the best way to save money is to get things done when they're small.
However, we can't change the past. If you're suffering from a dental emergency right now, it is impossible to tell how much it's going to cost you. Costs at all dental offices vary widely, primarily due to your dental insurance coverage or simply due to what needs to be done. If your dental emergency can be fixed with a simple filling, congratulations. Your costs are relatively low. If you have waited a long time to get work done on your teeth and now your dental emergency constitutes an implant or an extraction or a root canal, relatively speaking, those costs tend to be a little bit higher.
Exactly how much it costs totally depends on the tooth, on what needs to be done, on your insurance plan, and a whole bunch of things. You'll only know for sure how much it's going to cost you when you get diagnosed and seen by your dental care professional.
Does insurance cover dental emergencies?
Most dental insurances will cover all dental emergency codes or things that a dental practice will do for dental emergencies. What I mean by that is that most dental insurances offer coverage for emergency consultations. They offer coverage for emergency examinations. Typically, they offer coverage for any sort of treatment that the doctor might want to do. Whether that's a filling, a crown, an extraction, an emergency root canal, any of those things are typically covered by dental insurance. If you have insurance, you're probably covered.
What if I have a dental emergency after hours?
Unfortunately, dental emergencies tend to happen at the worst possible moment. Here at Sea Summit Dentistry, we are purposefully open until 9:00 p.m. to accommodate working individuals, busy families, and of course, dental emergencies. Sometimes they strike at 8:00 p.m. and you're not able to get an appointment with anybody until the next day. That's a disaster.
If you have a dental emergency on the weekend, you're in luck. [pracitce:name] is open from Monday through Sunday. So that means we're open on the weekends, same hours, 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. If you have a dental emergency on the weekend, feel free to give us a call and we can get you scheduled right away for emergency treatment.
You’re never alone in caring for your dental health. At Sea Summit Dentistry, our team is here to support and meet you where you are in your dental journey. Call (949) 787-3378 or email [email protected] to connect with us today.