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What Is Emergency Endodontics?
When a tooth is damaged, it can often involve the dental pulp right in its center. The pulp is housed in the pulp chamber and includes the tooth nerve, connective tissues, and blood vessels.
If the pulp is damaged, emergency endodontic treatment is needed to address it. The treatment focuses on saving a tooth where the pulp is compromised. Emergency treatment can save the tooth, protecting and preserving it for many years or for the rest of your life.
Types of Dental Trauma
The situations where you may require emergency endodontics can include:
- Chipped or fractured teeth, especially when the fracture is severe.
- Dislodged teeth, where a tooth has been pushed out of its normal position.
- Knocked out teeth, where a tooth has been knocked out entirely, requiring immediate, urgent care.
- Tooth root fractures, where a tooth has fractured above or below the gum line.
All these situations can cause unpleasant symptoms, including:
- Severe tooth pain.
- Loose teeth.
- Tooth discoloration.
- Bleeding or swelling around a tooth.
- Sensitivity to hot or cold foods and beverages.
- Knocked out tooth.
What to Do If You Have a Dental Emergency
If you experience a dental trauma and have a painful, discolored, or knocked-out tooth, please contact NYC Dentistry Center immediately. Our friendly dental team will schedule an appointment with an emergency endodontist. They can also offer expert advice on how to cope until you visit us.
Emergency Endodontic Treatments
When you see our emergency dentist, they can examine your tooth and recommend a suitable treatment depending on the situation. Below are some of the treatments they may recommend.
- Root Canal Therapy
Root canal therapy is used to remove the dental pulp if it is exposed or infected. Treatment will quickly relieve any toothache, allowing us to restore the tooth afterward.
- Re-implantation of an Avulsed (knocked out) Tooth
If you have knocked out a tooth, it is an emergency, so please come and see us immediately. We can sometimes replant the tooth or reposition partially knocked-out teeth.
- Splinting
Splinting is a technique often used to stabilize loose teeth, particularly after reimplantation. The loose tooth is splinted to the adjacent tooth or teeth, helping to hold it in place until it has healed.
- Partial Dental Pulp Removal (Pulpotomy)
If a child has a damaged or infected dental pulp, we may recommend a pulpotomy where the pulp is partially rather than fully removed. Treatment helps protect and preserve a tooth that is still developing, where the pulp is essential for this development.
In this situation, we remove the dental pulp in the crown of the tooth that is above the gum line, leaving the pulp tissues in the root canals in the tooth roots fully intact.
This treatment is typically performed on baby teeth, but can sometimes be successfully applied to a child’s adult teeth.
- Apicoectomy
An apicoectomy is a procedure to remove the very tip of a tooth root. It is usually performed after a root canal has become reinfected, but it can also be performed in other situations, such as to treat a fracture or bone loss around a tooth. It is a common procedure used to treat tooth injuries in children.
Pediatric Dental Trauma
When we see a child for dental trauma, we approach that treatment very differently from an adult. Often, they will have baby teeth still in place that we try to protect and preserve until the adult teeth are ready to erupt. Protecting these teeth helps to minimize disruption to the growth and alignment of the adult teeth.
Why Immediate Treatment Matters
When dental trauma occurs, it is essential to see a dentist as soon as possible. Often, the matter is time sensitive, such as treating knocked-out teeth. Faster treatment helps reduce the risk of infection and increases the chances of avoiding tooth loss.
Preventing Dental Trauma
Sometimes, an accident is unavoidable, but at other times, there are prevention strategies that can help considerably.
Custom-Made Sports Mouthguards
Use a custom-made sports mouthguard whenever there is a risk of taking a blow to the mouth. A custom-made sports mouthguard is comfortable to wear, neutral-tasting, and provides maximum protection for teeth and jaws.
Don’t Use Teeth as Tools
Avoid using teeth as tools and refrain from chewing on pens, pencils, or other non-food items to help reduce the risk of chipping or fracturing a tooth.
Schedule Regular Dental Checkups
Regular dental checkups are essential for maintaining strong, healthy teeth. If you have a tooth that is at risk of fracturing or showing signs of infection, we can treat it more quickly, helping to reduce the risk of you requiring emergency endodontics.
FAQs
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What Should I Do If I Knock Out a Tooth?
Retrieve the tooth and wash off any visible dirt, but leave any tissue on the tooth root intact. You can try to reinsert the tooth, making sure it is the right way around. Otherwise, store it in a little milk or in water with a pinch of salt, and come and see us immediately.
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Can a Broken Tooth Always Be Saved?
Unfortunately, some teeth are too severely damaged to be restored. You can rest assured that we will explore every option before recommending tooth extraction, which is always the last resort.
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Is Emergency Treatment Covered by Dental Insurance?
Emergency dental care is almost certainly covered by dental insurance. However, you may find the cost of restorative care is only partially covered, depending on the type of restoration required.
NYC Dentistry Center6 E 45th Street, 8th Floor, Suite 2
New York, NY 10017
(212) 810-9264