When faced with a medical emergency, most people know exactly what to do - call their regular doctor if they have one, or go to the emergency room for treatment, depending on the severity of the problem. And while many people have a dentist they trust and have visited for years, the nature of dental work makes it so that appointments are typically planned, sometimes weeks or even months in advance.
However, when faced with a dental emergency, many people find themselves at a loss of where to go and what to do. Just like a medical emergency, it is important to treat dental trauma and other problems in a timely manner in order to avoid complications and the risk of permanent damage.
24-Hour Emergency Dental
One of the most common dental problems to require emergency care is sudden tooth loss or breaks, usually caused by trauma or a fall. Although dental accidents are not generally life-threatening, getting immediate care from a dentist is necessary in order to help preserve the tooth and the smile's overall appearance. Even small breaks can cause nerve injuries through bacteria build-up in the soft pulp inside the tooth, potentially resulting in permanent damage if left untreated. A tooth fracture that might seem to be little more than a cosmetic problem can sometimes actually need a root canal to prevent infection and nerve damage.
Other types of dental emergencies include Inflammation, Bacterial Infection, Abscess, Loose teeth, Knocked out teeth, Cuts, and lacerations to the gums, tongue, lips, and cheeks.
Accidents happen. If a tooth becomes loose or falls out due to a fall or traumatic impact, try to keep the tooth clean and stable and seek immediate treatment. Call 24 Hour Emergency Dental today!
Cosmetic dentistry services can help correct minor and major cosmetic issues with your teeth and smile. The right procedure can turn an average grin into an impressive smile. Your smile is your gift to the world, and cosmetic dentistry can transform how you look.
New materials and technologies have changed the practice of cosmetic dentistry and given you a wide array of cosmetic dental services to choose from. Don’t make the decision alone. Instead, seek out the expertise of a skilled cosmetic dentist.
If you have old, unsightly metal fillings, they can be replaced with cosmetically beautiful tooth-colored restorations. People will notice your smile and not your fillings. Other cosmetic dentistry services you might consider:
Composite bonding, using a tooth-colored liquid resin that is sculpted perfectly to match your tooth, and hardened with a special ultraviolet light; composite bonding can close small gaps between teeth, change the color of your teeth, and cover small chips and cracks.
Contouring and reshaping, which can cosmetically straighten or correct overlapped, cracked, chipped or crooked teeth; contouring and reshaping can be done as a stand-alone procedure, or in combination with composite bonding to achieve the look you want.
Porcelain veneers, which are thin sheaths of porcelain placed on front teeth to improve their appearance; porcelain veneers are used to correct teeth that are:
Badly shaped, broken or poorly aligned
Heavily stained or discolored
Chipped and cracked from age-related wear
Spaced apart or slightly overlapped
4. Teeth whitening treatments, which can whiten teeth up to eight shades; you can choose from an in-office procedure which takes an hour, or a convenient take-home kit you can use in the privacy of your home.
5. Invisalign, which is the state-of-the-art virtually invisible way to straighten your teeth; Invisalign treatment uses comfortable, clear plastic trays, called aligners. There are no more metal wires or brackets. The entire Invisalign process takes about 9 to 15 months.
Of all the ways modern dentistry has to replace missing teeth, dental implants are by far the best. There is no tooth-replacement option that will give you a longer-lasting result. Implants also help preserve tooth-supporting bone that naturally deteriorates when a tooth is lost. Loss of bone is one of the major hidden consequences of losing teeth.
A dental implant most often takes the form of a small, screw-shaped titanium post that replaces the root part of a missing tooth. The surgical procedure used to place an implant is actually quite minor and routine, requiring only local anesthesia in most cases. After a healing period, the implant is topped with a lifelike crown custom-made to match your existing natural teeth. Implants have a documented success rate of over 95%, which is significantly higher than any other tooth-replacement option.
During a minor surgical procedure, your dental implant is inserted directly into the jawbone in the space vacated by the missing tooth. It will then be left to heal for a period of months before the final crown is attached. During this healing period, the implant actually fuses to the bone surrounding it.
Implants can replace missing teeth in a variety of ways. They can be used to:
Replace One Tooth — When you have one tooth missing, a single implant is inserted into the bone to replace the root part of that tooth; a crown then goes on top to simulate an actual tooth. This treatment choice has the highest success rate, making it the best long-term investment for replacing a single missing tooth. Even if the initial cost is slightly higher than other options, it is the most cost-effective solution over time. An implant will never decay or need root canal treatment, and feels just like the tooth that was there.
Replace Multiple Teeth — When you have more than one tooth missing, implants provide an ideal replacement mechanism. You don't even need one implant for every missing tooth. Instead, implant teeth can act as supports for fixed bridgework. For example, if you are missing three teeth in a row, we can place two implants, one on either side of the gap, and a crown in between that has no implant underneath. That way, you won't need to use any of your remaining natural teeth as bridge supports, which could weaken them and make them more susceptible to decay.
Replace All Teeth Permanently — Implants can support an entire arch of upper or lower replacement teeth that are fixed into the mouth and are never removed. Sometimes the new teeth can be supported by as few as 4 implants. It's comparable to the structure of a table, which only needs 4 legs to hold it up. In cases where jawbone density and volume have deteriorated, 5 or 6 implants might be needed to support a row of 10 to 12 teeth. Dental implant replacement teeth protect your jawbone, won't slip, and should last a lifetime.
Support Removable Dentures — Implants can even make removable dentures more comfortable, effective and healthier to wear. Traditional dentures rest on the gums and put pressure on the underlying bone. This accelerates bone loss so that the jaw shrinks and the dentures slip, particularly on the bottom. But today dentists can attach a removable denture onto implants, transferring that pressure into the bone structure rather than the bone surface. This prevents the dentures from slipping while you eat and speak, and preserves the bone directly beneath them.
There are only two ways an implant can lose attachment to the bone and fail once it has successfully fused: poor oral hygiene or excessive biting forces. Poor oral hygiene and/or a lack of regular cleanings can lead to a destructive bacterial infection called peri-implantitis. Flossing and brushing your teeth on a daily basis, along with regular professional cleanings, can prevent this. Excessive biting forces can come from either a habit of clenching or grinding your teeth, or an insufficient number of implants to handle the forces generated by your bite. You should receive the correct number of implants so this does not happen. And if you have a habit of grinding or clenching your teeth, a nightguard will be recommended to protect your implants. After all, implants are a long-term investment in your smile, your health and your well-being, so it's best to protect your investment.
Dentists perform approximately 15 million root canals every year according to the American Association of Endodontists. It's a very common endodontic treatment that helps patients preserve and strengthen their teeth. Patients who have severe dental decay are often recommended for root canal therapy as an alternative to extraction. Explore the details and benefits of getting a root canal at 24-Hour Emergency Dental.
Root Canal Fears It's natural and normal to be a little anxious about having a root canal, but those fears will be assuaged by your dentist at your initial exam and consultation. Thanks to sedation dentistry, you won’t feel anything during the procedure. The area is thoroughly numbed first so that you can sit back and relax for the rest of the appointment with your 24 Hour Emergency Dentist. Some patients are also worried about whether the procedure will work. It is estimated that root canal treatments have a success rate of 87 percent after 8-10 years according to a study conducted at the UCL Eastman Dental Institute.
Root Canal Benefits As fearful as many patients are about root canal therapy, it is one of the most effective and beneficial dental procedures. It allows you to keep your original tooth, which is a good thing for a number of reasons. If the tooth is extracted, it leaves a gap in your smile and your other teeth can shift out of position. If you’ve been living with intense tooth pain, an emergency root canal by your Gunter & Plano dentist is the best way to eliminate the pain you’ve been experiencing.
The Procedure It may ease your mind to know what you should expect in advance of your root canal procedure. It normally takes one appointment (about one to two hours depending on the severity of the issue). After sedating you, the dentist makes an opening in the tooth so that the diseased pulp can be removed. When it is thoroughly clean, it is filled with a biocompatible compound called gutta-percha. A crown will be designed to cover the tooth so that it can heal properly over the coming weeks.