Finding An Emergency Dentist: What You Should Know

Most people wait until they have an emergency situation to seek out medical care. This is true for both the medical and dental field. Unfortunately, unlike with medical care, finding an emergency dentist can prove to be a little more tricky than just driving down to the emergency room. This tends to be what most people end up doing and is simply not the best course of action. Emergency rooms are great for medical emergencies, but they lack access to a dentist, making looking for an emergency dentist in an ER a futile effort. What ends up happening then is that you have an emergency, or even worse your child does, and you are desperately looking for a provider. Turns out that your dentist is more of a traditionalist who does not work at 10pm Friday night when you have a raging toothache. At times like this, people turn to the internet and hopefully stumble across our site so that we can have them come in and get taken care of as needed. If you are going to use the internet to search for a medical service provider, we do recommend that you do so before you have an emergency and take the time to check out their recommendations and reviews online before making an appointment.

Speaking of which, we highly advise folks to take the precaution of having an emergency dentist contact information on their emergency contact list starting today. That way you are not scrambling around with a broken tooth trying to find a person who can put it back together. Start with your own provider if you already have a dentist. Ask them if they do emergency dentist work and what that entails. Most times, if your dentist does not do emergency work, they have a recommendation for someone that does. If they do not, it may be time to change dentists. You can also get recommendations from friends and family. Since many people prefer to be familiar with the staff they are dealing with, you should consider having a dentist that also does emergency dentist work. That way, in an emergency, you already know the place you are going and the people who are going to be caring for you.

The one thing we always warn patients about, and if you call us with a broken or knocked out tooth you will get asked about it, is bleeding. In any kind of an emergency, there are situations that can escalate quickly and must be treated with the utmost sense of urgency. Bleeding is one of those situations. If you have mild bleeding from a broken tooth, you can place a piece of gauze over it and put mild pressure on it to restrict the bleeding. If the bleeding is excessive and will not stop with pressure, you need to take it to the next level and call for 911 or get to an emergency room immediately. In either case, being able to reach your emergency dentist for advice and direction is a good idea.