Dental Emergency Procedures That Can Help Save a Tooth

It happens. Your children are enjoying the summer weather, romping in the yard having fun in the sun, when you suddenly hear screaming. When you run out, you see your oldest child bleeding from his mouth. A quick look shows that his front tooth has popped out during the roughhousing. Although he seems to be fine (albeit in a little pain), the kids seem fascinated with the avulsed tooth and are actively poking at it in the mud. What do you do? Dental emergencies like these are a part of life. But what do you do to deal with such dental emergencies in which you have lost a tooth, broken a tooth or are facing excruciating pain in the middle of the night? How do you deal with dental emergencies quickly and efficiently? These tips will help prepare you if it happens to you.

Knocked Out Teeth

If you can find the tooth, gently pick it up and rinse the root off in running water. Do not touch the root or scrub it, or remove any of the attached tissue. Store the tooth in a clean container filled with milk and head for the dentist immediately. If the socket is open and clean, you can also try to place the tooth back in the socket. Do not attempt this is if the tooth appears to be broken or if the socket appears to be filled with dirt.

Cracked or Fractured Teeth

There is no way to treat a cracked or fractured tooth at home. The tooth may look fine, but biting down on the tooth will cause severe pain that decreases immediately after chewing. In this case, you will have to get an X-ray of the affected tooth to see just how bad the fracture is. You should avoid biting down on the tooth. The dentist may be able to treat the problem but it will require extensive care.

Broken Teeth

A broken tooth is quite painful, but you can start by swishing your mouth out with warm water to reduce any pain. Use dental floss to remove any food that may be stuck around the tooth’s surface and apply pressure in case there is bleeding. If the warm water does not work, use a cold compress to control swelling and pain. In case of severe pain, take an OTC painkiller and contact your dentist immediately.

Chipped Teeth

Chipped teeth are not painful but they may be sensitive for a very long time. However, most dentists will be able to treat the problem by repairing the chipped surface with composite or tooth colored dental restorative material. If the damage is extensive, you may require a root canal.

Avoiding Tooth and Mouth Injuries

Although dealing with dental injuries is important, it is just as important to prevent these injuries. About 80 percent of all dental injuries affect one or more of the front teeth, but it is very easy to protect these teeth with simple preventive measures. For example, helmets and mouthguards should be made compulsory during play. Make sure you also have an emergency dentist on dial. You might be surprised, but most private dentists do provide emergency dental services. We recommend you find a dentist who provides this service and keep his or her number ready for any such emergencies. It will ensure that you have professional backup in case such emergencies occur.

Furthermore, ask your dentist for after-hour emergency phone numbers. Dental emergencies never seem to happen at convenient times, but if you’re on vacation or chip a tooth in the middle of the night, the after-hours contact info will come in handy.

Pericoronitis: A short guide

You’ve woken up one morning and the back of your mouth feels all swollen. In fact, every time you bite down, the gum in that area seems to feel that something is hidden inside it and its hurting pretty badly. Rinsing your mouth out with salt water seems to help but after a few hours, the pain and swelling seems to have gotten worse. You know you don’t have a cavity and there is nothing in that area that could have caused the problem. Of course, you are just 23-years-of-age and you don’t think that you have any dental problems. What could be the cause of so much pain?

You have Dental Pericoronitis!

You’ve woken up one morning and the back of your mouth feels all swollen. In fact, every time you bite down, the gum in that area seems to feel that something is hidden inside it and its hurting pretty badly. Rinsing your mouth out with salt water seems to help but after a few hours, the pain and swelling seems to have gotten worse. You know you don’t have a cavity and there is nothing in that area that could have caused the problem. Of course, you are just 23-years-of-age and you don’t think that you have any dental problems. What could be the cause of so much pain?

Signs and Symptoms

As the name suggest, pericoronitis refers to an inflammation that has occurred around an erupting tooth or partially erupted tooth. This is usually seen in wisdom teeth that erupt anytime from 20 to 40 years of age. Not everyone gets wisdom teeth but some patients have a genetic predisposition to the teeth. For them, the teeth will try to push themselves into the oral cavity depending on a preset genetic trigger. Unfortunately, by the time the teeth erupt, there is no space for wisdom teeth in the oral cavity. As a result, the patient will frequently experience bouts of discomfort as the extra tooth tries to push itself into the mouth. Pericoronitis occurs when the wisdom tooth manages to push itself partially out of the bone and gum and then is stuck, neither in nor out. The partially erupted tooth usually covered with a flap of freely moving gum tissue that protects it as it erupts into the mouth. As the patient eats food, extra food particles are stuck under the gum flap and they ferment and infect the gum tissue, resulting in a gum infection called as pericoronitis. However, the problem is a recurrent condition. As the gum flap is in place, food particles can be stuck at any time causing recurrent infections. This is referred to as chronic pericoronitis

Oral Examination

The most signs and symptoms of pericoronitis are pain, infection, fever, body ache, and difficulty in opening the mouth, foul odor in the mouth, foul oral taste, and swellings in the lymph nodes of the neck. A few patients may experience malaise and facial swelling, and painful swallowing as well. For some patients, the infection may spread rapidly and it may move down and out to the gums, cheek and neck causing a serious oro-facial infection.

Treatment

If pericoronitis is limited to the tooth, the patient will be treated with antibiotics to control the infection and painkillers to relieve the pain. Other supplementary measures like warm saline rinses and hydrogen peroxide rinses are also effective in controlling the pain and swelling. Patients should not place hot or cold compresses on the cheek surface as this may increase the size of the swelling.

If the condition recurs, the dentist may recommend removal of the gum flap that is causing the problem. In case of serious infections, the wisdom tooth may be removed. Preventive care in the form of improved oral hygiene measure, intradental flossing, fluoridated mouthwashes and regular dental checks ups are recommended.

Baby Bottle Tooth Decay : A Short Guide

It’s the truth. Baby teeth are whiter and prettier than normal teeth and they seem to fit the smaller oral cavity of children that much better. Considering that there are fewer teeth, it should have been easier to keep them clean and cavity-free, right? Wrong, tooth decay in very common in younger children and in fact, statistics state that baby caries or nursing decay is affects more than 70% of children worldwide. In most children, the decay is also referred to as Nursing Decay, Bottle Rot, or Sippy Cup Decay.

Causes of Baby Bottle Tooth Decay

Although the exact spread of baby bottle decay is not known, researchers have suggested that the decay is a transmissible condition. Mothers who harbor the causative bacteria Streptococcus mutans are more than likely to transmit the bacteria to their children. Mothers who have untreated cavities are more than likely to transmit the condition to their children resulting in a faster spreading condition. The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry also states that most mothers bottle feed their child with sweet liquids that also contain fermentable carbohydrates like juice, soda, cereal, etc. feeding the child at night or letting the baby fall asleep with the bottle in the mouth are the primary causes for this condition. The sweet liquid remains in the baby’s mouth causing baby cavities that spread faster and affect more teeth quickly.

Prevention

It is entirely possible to prevent and control baby bottle cavities but parents have to enforce a feeding and cleaning regimen.

• Bottle feedings or sippy cup feedings should be avoided at night. In case they are required, the baby should be given a sip of plain water to rinse out the sweet liquid from the mouth.

• Do not allow your child to fall asleep with a bottle of juice or sweet fluid in their mouth. If possible, reduce the sugar intake in your child’s diet particular if cavities have already started.

• Do not use a pacifier dipped in sweet liquid as it can create a habit or a dependence on sweet, sugary fluids.

• If your child has got used to falling asleep with a bottle in the mouth, wean the child off the habit by filling the bottle with diluted feed for 2-3 days and then switch over to water completely.

• The ADA now recommends the use of fluoridated water solutions, fluoridated toothpastes and mouthwashes at an early age. However, we recommend you talk to your dentist before you use fluoridated products in your baby.

• Wipe your child’s mouth with a soft cloth after every feed. If possible, use a washcloth to clean the teeth as well. Once the baby is accustomed to this process, he or she will allow you to do it even if they are sleepy.

• Schedule regular dental visits as soon as the baby’s first tooth comes up and make sure you visit the dentist every six months after that. Pay careful attention to new teeth as they come.

The best way to prevent baby bottle caries is to prevent your child from going to sleep with a baby bottle in his or her mouth. The disease or condition is completely preventable but it does require a little care and effort. Parents need to make sure that infant teeth are clean and clear of any baby milk solution before they go to sleep and this is more than enough to prevent the condition completely. Regular dental check-ups will also make sure that your baby’s teeth are clean and clear of cavities.

7 Facts That Every Dental Patient Should Know

Not everyone likes to visit the dentist. There can be many reasons for this but in the end, patients should know that a dentist does his very best to make his patient comfortable. In fact, if you are dreading a visit to your dentist, here are a few things you should know.

#1 – Baby Cavities

Babies are not born with cavity-causing bacteria in their mouth. They get this bacterial from mothers and caregivers. As a result, it is important to care for your oral hygiene as much as possible if you are pregnant or expecting a baby.

#2 – Preventive care is important

Visiting your dentist every six months is necessary. This is particularly important if you have cavity prone teeth. Your dentist can catch cavities when they are small and fill them with modern restorative materials in less than ten minutes. Some of the better restorative materials also leak fluoride into the tooth causing it to mineralize after the filling is done.

#3 – Fluoridation is important

Almost every country now uses fluoridated water to increase the strength of teeth. You can improve on this by using fluoridated toothpaste and fluoridated mouthwash. However, fluoridated products are not recommended in children less than 5-years of age. Topical fluoride treatments are also recommended in children to strengthen both milk and permanent teeth.

#4- Soda and processed food is not good for you

You might already know this but people who have a high-sugar diet and consume more than two glasses of sweet soda per day are likely to have 62% more tooth decay in their mouth. Combining this with processed food can speed up the decay in their mouth and cause widespread dental decay.

#5- Dental treatments can be uncomfortable

Dental treatments can be uncomfortable and patients may be anxious about treatment resulting in problems for the dentist and the patient. However, if you discuss your problems with your dentist, he will do his level best to make your treatment as comfortable as possible. For example, modern day anesthetic procedures can numb almost anything making any procedure comfortable.

#6- Floss everyday

Flossing every day is a good idea but not everyone has the time for it. You can do it once in two or three days and it will do just as well. Make sure you use fluoridated floss and a holder to get the job done correctly. The first few attempts may be painful but once you get the hang of it, you can complete flossing in less than 3 minutes.

#7 –Brush for 3-4 minutes everyday

We brush our teeth everyday but most people brush their teeth for less than 30 seconds daily. This is not enough and the ADA recommends brushing your teeth for a minimum of 3-4 minutes daily. Use brushing timer or a mechanical toothbrush to ensure that you meet the minimum brushing time.

If at any time, you are uncomfortable with treatment or are experiencing pain, let your dentist know immediately. They will provide a solution to the problem and try to make your experience as friendly and as comfortable as possible. Remember, your dentist is your friend and your doctor. If you are upfront with him about your dental health and problems, he will do everything he can to make your dental visits comfortable.

Oral Herpes: A Short Guide

Did you ever have to suffer through a cold sore that is supremely painful, irritating, and contagious just before an important meeting? Cold sores are just like that. They pop up at the most inopportune times and in fact, they can be quite painful, disfiguring, and extremely difficult to cover up.

What Are Cold Sores?

Oral herpes, or herpes labialis, is a viral infection that manifests in the form of small blisters that develop on the lips or around the mouth. You probably refer to this infection by its more common name, cold sores. That’s because the sore erupts when the patient has a fever or cold. The blisters linger for about seven days and then go away by themselves.

The HSV-1 virus, or the cold sore virus, enters the body through damaged oral mucosal tissue and causes these blisters. Typically, the first infection does not cause blisters. Instead, the virus enters the body and goes into hibernation or sleep mode. It actually goes into hiding along the course of a nerve; most commonly, the facial nerve that runs over the face, cheeks, and lips. The virus hibernates until the body’s immune system gets compromised due to stress, illness, sunlight, sunburns, fever, dehydration, local skin trauma, weakness, etc. When the body’s immune system is weak, the virus gets a chance to pop out. It travels down the course of the nerve to the skin where it causes blisters on the mouth, lips, nose, chin or cheeks.

Symptoms of Cold Sores

A patient with a cold sore may experience fever, tiredness, malaise, muscle aches, and irritability. The primary symptoms seen in all patients are pain, burning and tingling. These symptoms occur before the sore appears. Once the sore is visible, the active stage may last anywhere from two to 12 days.

Clusters of small blisters appear in the same area and they break down in a few days to form shallow grey ulcers on a red base. After a few days, the ulcers are covered with a yellow crust or yellow covering. The ulcers resolve without any scarring, again, in about a week to 12 days. Some patients may experience blistering and ulcers inside the mouth in the same progression. These ulcers are much more painful and they may make eating and drinking difficult. However, if you experience dry mouth, irritability and drowsiness, get in touch with your doctor immediately.

Treatment of Cold Sores

Some patients experience fever and muscle aches before the ulcers. Paracetamol and ibuprofen are recommended.

Dehydration is a common concern and patients have to drink a lot of water to aid in recovery.

Topical anti-virals like Aciclovir, Penciclovir, Famciclovir, Valalciclovir, etc in the form of 5 percent creams or oral tablets are perfect to control the ulcer.

Topical applications of a saturated fatty alcohol like Docosanol are also approved by the FDA.

Topical anaesthetics like lidocaine may be prescribed to control the pain.

Home remedies like Lysine supplements, sunblock on the affected area with a cream like Blistex Medicated Relief SPF 15, cold sore patches like Compeed, cold compresses, OTC lotions like Abreva to reduce redness and pain, etc are all helpful to varying degrees.

In some relatively rare cases, patients have to be admitted to a hospital if the condition becomes very painful. You should check with your dentist or doctors if you experience frequent episodes of cold sores or if the pain from them becomes intolerable.