8 Tips You Must Follow To Avoid Dental Emergencies

Did you know that following dental emergency prevention tips is crucial? It’s because they will help you a lot in mitigating the risk of having to face severe dental issues. You need to prioritize your oral health and address the potential dental problems early on. 

In this blog post, you will learn about several tips for avoiding dental emergencies resulting from oral injuries and trauma. These tips will help you lessen the damage after trauma. So, let’s begin with the first tip now.

1. Dental emergencies, which are caused by injuries to the soft tissues, such as the lip, gums, tongue or the intra-oral tissues of the cheeks, are a common reason for walk-ins to a dental office. It is also not uncommon to have dental emergency clinic patients who walk in with fractured teeth, partially or completely knocked out teeth. Traditional summer activities, including swimming, cycling, football, and skateboarding, can often give rise to accidents and misadventures, which result in a dental emergency. That’s why you need to wear a sports mouthguard, preferably made from a custom impression. It’s important to wear such mouthguards for contact sports. It is also advisable to wear it for non-contact sports such as basketball, baseball or even soccer.

2. A dental emergency resulting in an avulsed or knocked-out tooth, where the entire tooth is fully displaced out of the socket, should involve the re-implantation of the tooth within 30 minutes. If you want the tooth to have a good chance of surviving, you need to get the procedure done, as the periodontal ligament around the tooth will have an increased likelihood of reattaching itself to the bony socket or alveolar bone. The tooth may require endodontics or root canal therapy at a later date due to nerve pathology, which began to slowly occur at the time of the injury, and results in a dental emergency.

3. Luxated teeth or teeth that have been displaced out of alignment should be re-aligned with very gentle pressure, and no forcing of the tooth back into the socket should ever be done. The injured person should then be seen by a dental professional as soon as possible for treatment of the dental emergency. Regardless of the damage to the teeth, a dentist should be consulted immediately for clinical examination, with the treatment dependent on the severity of the fracture. Often, delays and procrastination due to factors such as patients’ fears of dentists, neglect, misplaced priorities and indifference result in situations where an even more severe dental emergency arises at a future date than the dental emergency at or around the time of the accident.

4. You need to get regular dental checkups for your teeth. In fact, you should get these checkups every six months. It will give you an opportunity to identify the potential issues in their earlier stages. During these examinations, your dentist will be able to identify the potential issues in the early stage. Your dentist will be able to spot the beginnings of tooth decay, gum disease, and even issues with the existing fillings. Early detection is a clear indication of less invasive and cost-effective treatment. These routine visits will help you prevent painful dental emergencies later on!

5. When you’re savouring crunchy or chewy food items, they can harm your teeth in the long run. By having hard candies, ice cubes, or some nuts, you will be putting too much pressure on your teeth. It has the potential to lead to cracks or fractures, and that’ll hold more true when your teeth have existing weaknesses or fillings. Sticky foods such as candies can put a significant amount of stress on your fillings, crowns, along the natural tooth structure while you’re chewing. It can also pull out the loose fillings or crowns, which is bound to create an unexpected dental emergency. So, you need to avoid chewing hard or sticky food. 

6. You might think that your tooth enamel is hard enough to take care of the temperature changes in your mouth. But that’s not the case. The rapid and considerable changes in temperature in your mouth can cause several issues. If you consume extremely hot food items just after eating cold items, your enamel is going to expand or contract at different rates. In due time, this constant stress will lead to microscopic cracks inside the enamel. To avoid this issue, you need to allow hot food items to cool down a bit before you consume them. Alongside this, avoid consuming hot food items just after consuming cold items. 

7. Teeth grinding, which is also known as bruxism, is basically grinding the teeth or involuntary clenching. It often occurs while sleeping, but it can also happen during the day because of stress or anxiety. This immense pressure and friction are bound to damage your teeth over time. It can even cause flattened, chipped, cracked, or worn-down teeth. The bruxism that’s left untreated can cause jaw pain or even headaches. In case you suspect that you have bruxism, you need to get it checked by your dentist. They will assess the extent of your teeth’s damage and even recommend the most effective solutions. 

8. Once you’ve undergone any dental procedure, you need to follow the specific instructions for post-operative care and maintenance. Following these instructions is important to ensure that there aren’t any complications later on, which might lead to a dental emergency. That’s why you need to follow your dentist’s advice and ensure proper aftercare once the dental procedure is done. 

Conclusion

Dental emergencies are treatable, but they have their own share of pain and inconveniences. That’s why you need to avoid these dental emergencies at all costs. The tips that are mentioned above will help you avoid these dental emergencies. The best part is that these tips are easily followable and will benefit you a lot in maintaining your oral hygiene. So, follow these tips and never let any dental emergency happen in the first place. The most amazing thing is that you will meet with your loved ones with a sparkling smile by following all these tips. If you need more such tips, get in touch with Emergency Dental 365 now.