How to Get an Emergency Dental Appointment
Dental emergencies will always come when you expect them the least. You could be having a nice picnic, having lunch with friends, or at home carrying out your chores, and an emergency strikes.
Dental emergencies are never planned for, just like any other emergency but need immediate response to avoid complications. Therefore, you will need to know where you need to go and the issue that needs to be addressed.
Getting a hold of our emergency dentist in Grimsby is not difficult since you can contact us, and we will move things around. But two things are necessary: knowing what constitutes a dental emergency and how to get an emergency appointment. Plus, you need to know what to do when you cannot get one.
What Constitutes a Dental Emergency?
Before you even contact our dental clinic near you, you need to know if you require the services of our emergency dentist. This is critical because circumstances may seem as though they are emergencies, and they aren’t. You might end up panicking and spending a lot of money on an issue that could be dealt with at home.
In a nutshell, a dental emergency is defined as any dental issue that requires immediate dental care. If the dental issue is not resolved, then it would mean that you will be unable to carry out your daily tasks. Some of the issues that qualify to be emergencies are:
- Incessant bleeding in the mouth
- Tooth abscess
- Severe dental pain
- Knocked-out tooth
It is important to get immediate care since these dental issues have a knack for escalating very fast, and complications can arise after a short while. You will need to rush if you wish to get some of the issues reversed. For instance, a knocked-out tooth can be returned in the socket, but you will need to visit our dental clinic within 30 minutes.
Cracked teeth, missing crowns and fillings might not be viewed as a dental emergency not unless there are small fragments that can be harmful to your oral health. Toothaches are not always deemed emergencies unless you cannot function.
Remember this: if the issue can wait for a day before it is resolved, then it isn’t considered an emergency.
How Do You Get an Emergency Appointment?
Now that you know how to differentiate between an emergency and a non-emergency, you can proceed to the next step. If you have ascertained that you are in an emergency, you need to contact our dentist to ascertain if there are emergency slots available.
Emergency slots are usually available throughout the day, so you should always find a slot within 24 hours.
If you don’t have a dentist you visit, you might have to look online for the dentists available in your area. You might need to call each one to find the available one. Since it is an emergency, you need an available dentist, and you don’t need to be registered.
That’s why we always tell our patients to check out various dentists in their area and vet them beforehand. When you know where you can go in case of a dental emergency, you will have saved yourself a lot of time.
What Can You Do If You Cannot Get an Emergency Dental Appointment?
On occasion, you might be unable to find an emergency with available slots within 24 hours. If this happens, you might resort to temporary solutions you can try at home until the next day.
That’s why you may need to always invest in a dental first aid kit, which can help if you have a loose crown or a dislodged tooth. If your tooth has come out, you can place it in a container with milk. If the tooth is stored properly, our dentist may re-implant it the next day.
You can gargle warm salt water and take pain killers to ease the discomfort if it’s an abscess. You can also take painkillers to ease the pain if it’s a toothache. These temporary solutions should help you get through the day as you wait to visit our dentist.
So, if you are looking for an emergency dentist in Grimsby, contact us at Smiles of Canada to speak to our dental team.