A dental emergency can be quite a nightmarish situation; having to rush to the nearest dental clinic to get treatment for cracked, bleeding tooth or an excruciating abscess can be a very distressing experience. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to reduce your chances of ending up in this type of situation. Read on to learn more.
Invest in a mouth guard
Many people enjoy participating in contact sports such as boxing, wrestling and rugby. However, the nature of these types of sports means that there is a very strong chance that participants will, at some point, end up sustaining an injury, such as a broken tooth. If you play a contact sport and are concerned about the possibility of being injured in this way, consider purchasing a custom-made mouth guard.
This dental device can absorb the impact of, for example, a ball that hits you in the face and thus help to lessen the likelihood of the blow causing a chipped or cracked tooth. It can also protect the soft tissues of your mouth from developing cuts and bruises in this type of scenario.
Pay attention to the types of food you eat
There are several different kinds of food which can cause a tooth to crack or a filling to fall out. As such, if you'd like to avoid making an emergency trip to the dental clinic, it's best to avoid consuming these foods.
Things such as the stones inside olives and the pits inside peaches and cherries are incredibly hard; if you accidentally bite down with too much force on them, you will almost certainly end up with a dental injury. Popcorn kernels, which can often be found hiding amongst a bag of popcorn, are also hard enough to do damage to your teeth, as are boiled sweets, toffees and animal bones.
If you still want to continue eating these things, make sure to consume them with caution; bite down gently and chew as slowly as possible.
Go for regular check-ups
Teeth which are not examined regularly by a dentist are more likely to develop painful abscesses and other problems which are likely to require an appointment at an emergency dental clinic. Going for regular check-ups will provide your dentist with the opportunity to carefully inspect your teeth and gums for signs of decay which could result in an abscess. They can then take the necessary treatment to prevent the decay from evolving into an infection. These treatments, which may include a filling or a simple scale-and-polish, will be far less distressing and expensive than the treatments needed to heal an abscess.
Share5 May 2017
Hello, my name is Catherine and this is my blog all about health and medical topics. I was inspired to start this blog by my husband who works in a hospital. He isn't a doctor, he works in a lab testing blood samples. However, he is extremely interested in medicine. When his grandma got sick, he quickly established what might be wrong and got her all the help she needed. Sometimes is the evening, we sit and read textbooks and talk about medicine. It sounds insane but we both really like it. I decided to start this blog to show off some of what I have learnt.