Emergency Dental Care

Usually, if you ring early. We hold time each morning and afternoon specifically for unscheduled pain and breakages, and it is not released for routine bookings. Call rather than booking online — the online system only shows scheduled slots, so it will look busier than we actually are. Tell whoever answers exactly what has happened and whether you are in pain, because that is how we prioritise.

Act on the tooth immediately regardless of the day, because the clock is running and it does not care that it is Saturday. Handle it by the crown, rinse in milk or saliva only, and reinsert it into the socket if you can — that is the single best thing for its survival and you do not need a dentist to do it. If you cannot, keep it in milk. Then ring our number; the voicemail carries after-hours guidance. If reinsertion is impossible and no dental care is available until Monday, keeping it in milk gives it the best chance, though the odds fall considerably after the first hour.

Not for a toothache alone, because hospital emergency departments do not have dentists. They will assess you, manage your pain, possibly prescribe antibiotics if there is infection, and tell you to see a dentist — none of which fixes the tooth. Where you absolutely should go is if there is spreading facial swelling, difficulty breathing or swallowing, uncontrolled bleeding, a suspected jaw fracture, or fever with swelling. Those are genuine medical emergencies where the risk is to your airway, not your tooth.

Unfortunately this is often a bad sign rather than a good one. Severe pain that suddenly stops frequently means the nerve inside the tooth has died. The pain goes because the nerve is no longer able to signal — but the infection does not go, it simply moves quietly down the root and into the bone, where it forms an abscess. Please still come in. A tooth that has gone quiet after severe pain usually needs root canal treatment or extraction, and dealing with it before the abscess develops is considerably easier.

Most of the time, and the odds improve substantially the sooner you come. A small chip is often repaired with bonding in one visit. A larger fracture usually needs a crown or onlay to hold the tooth together. A crack that has reached the pulp needs root canal treatment as well as a crown. What cannot be saved is a vertical fracture running down into the root, which is why the timing matters — a crack that is caught while it is confined to the crown of the tooth is a very different proposition from one that has been flexing under load for six months.

Often not, and this surprises people. Antibiotics do not cure a dental infection because they cannot reach the source, which is dead tissue inside a tooth with no blood supply. They can suppress the symptoms temporarily while the underlying problem continues. The actual treatment is drainage and removing the cause — root canal treatment or extraction. Antibiotics have a genuine role where infection has spread beyond the tooth into the surrounding tissue, where there is facial swelling, or where you are systemically unwell, and we will prescribe them then. But a course of antibiotics as a substitute for treatment just delays things and contributes to resistance.

It sounds like pericoronitis — inflammation of the gum flap over a partially erupted wisdom tooth. Food and bacteria get trapped under the flap where no toothbrush can reach, and it flares up painfully, often when you are run down or have been eating on that side. Warm salty water rinses and careful cleaning of the area help acutely. But it recurs, because the anatomy that causes it does not change. If it has happened more than once, the sensible conversation is about whether that wisdom tooth should come out, and the answer is often yes.

You will know. The emergency examination fee is comparable to a standard appointment and we will tell you on the phone. For anything beyond that you get a plan with item numbers and costs before we proceed, and getting you out of pain does not oblige you to accept the full treatment. If money is the obstacle, say so — sometimes the right approach on the day is a temporary measure that makes you comfortable while you sort out the funding, and we would far rather do that than have you go home untreated.

Yes, and you should if you are in pain — take them according to the packet instructions. It does not interfere with our ability to diagnose or treat. What you should avoid is placing aspirin or clove oil directly against the gum, which burns the tissue and makes the area harder to work on, and applying heat to any facial swelling, which encourages the infection to spread. Tell us at the appointment what you have taken and when.