What To Do In Case Of An Accidental Broken Tooth
Thursday, June 11th, 2009
Summer Is Here!
Even if I lived in a closed box I think I could tell when summer arrives by the phone calls and questions I receive. With people going out of town for vacation or having guests with them, dental concerns take an elevated status. The panic factor increases. So I wanted to review a couple of common scenarios that seem to occur more at this time of year.
I am at my sister’s and I just had a crown come off, what should I do?
First, there are many reasons that a crown might come off, so if possible, visit her dentist and have it temporarily cemented. If that is inconvenient you can go to the drug store and buy a denture adhesive. Clean out the crown as well as possible and add a very slight amount of denture adhesive to the inside of the crown. In this situation very little is needed. The crown will only go back on one way – give it a few trial runs before putting in the adhesive. Once comfortable with the orientation, put the crown to place with the adhesive inside of the crown. Please understand that this is a temporary fix. You will be able to dislodge it with chewy or sticky food, so be careful. The reason it is important to place the crown back in your mouth if at all possible is to preserve the space. Teeth shift and drift until they hit something. If the crown is left out for a period of a week or so it may no longer fit the space.
I just bit into something and part of my tooth broke!!!!
Most of the time, this is much more startling than painful. The worst pain will be when it first happens. Usually the tooth will be sensitive to cold; however you will be surprised that it is not worse because it will feel like a huge hole in your mouth. Most likely it will be fine and we can deal with it when you get back home. Again, the normal initial response is one of panic. What is typical is that it is rather sharp to your tongue, but otherwise not terrible.
My parents are visiting and my dad’s tooth just……… (You fill in the blank)
Give us a call. I am sure that we can find a way to help get him taken care of or at least get him comfortable until he gets back home.
Regardless of the situation, please remember that you can always give me a call. If I am not in the studio, our voice mail will give you my cell phone – call me. There is no need to have pain or panic ruin your vacation. We can usually get things under control pretty quickly.
