"Music helps not, the toothache."

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Dental Emergency Advice

Broken tooth or filling which is sharp and sensitive and rubbing against your tongue and makes the area sore.

Cover the broken part by a sugar free chewing gum or temporary filling material (you can get it from pharmacy) and contact your dentist. 

Bleeding following an extraction.

Usually following every surgery you expect some bleeding. The bleeding time and the amount of bleeding depending on many factors like the size of the extraction site and the type (simple or surgical) and if patient has been taking any blood thinning drugs like Warfarin, Heparin and to some extent Ibuprofen and Aspirin.

You can also reduce discomfort and swelling by applying an ice pack- 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off for the first six hours following the procedure. 

However if you have excessive bleeding following a tooth extraction do the following. Roll a clean handkerchief like a sausage and bite on it on the extraction site it can be a gauze pad, soft clean padding or even cold wet tea bag( If your dentist has placed a suture in the extraction site then you must be careful and not bite very hard on the site because it could cause the dental suture to come loose).  

Keep your head elevated on several pillows. Avoid strenuous exercise during the first 24 hours and keep the mouth from excessive movement. Physical activity may increase bleeding.                                   

If you want to take pain killers before surgery it might be better to take Paracetamol. Ibuprofen and Asprin might cause slightly more bleeding after extraction.

Do not play with your tongue in the surgical site. It is possible the movement of tongue do open the wound and or sometimes might loosen up the suture. Keep your tongue away. 

Pain in extraction site following an extraction

Following extraction especially in the more difficult cases, some patients may experience to some degree discomfort for a few days time. If you do have discomfort following an extraction and you want to take pain killers then you are better off to take an anti-inflammatory pain killer (like Ibuprofen and/or Aspirin, if you can) rather than Paracetamol. The anti inflammatory pain killers have the benefit of reducing the inflammation in the extraction site as well and hopefully achieving slightly easier healing.

One of most common causes for discomfort in the extraction site following a extraction is development of infection in the surgery site. This type of infection is usually developed a few days following the extraction and patients experience pain and severe sensitivity to hot and cold. Some type of people are more prone to develop these type of infection in the extraction site and other factors like smoking, long term diabetes and age is affecting the risk to develop such infection. Try to avoid smoking because it does increase the risk for such infection. Try to see your dentist as soon as possible. This condition is called Dry Socket.

Pain in the gum around wisdom teeth

Pain in the gum around upper wisdom teeth:

 There are many reasons for discomfort around upper wisdom teeth but one reason is that it has been erupting in a wrong angle and is rubbing against the inside check specially when the person open and closes the mouth which in turn causes the tooth to rub against the inside check. A temporary good help is to put something soft on the tooth (sugar free chewing gum) and contact your dentist immediately. Because of inflammation in the area maybe an anti-inflammatory pain killer (like Ibuprofen or Aspirin) works better than Paracetamol. If you are not sure if it is the area around upper or lower wisdom tooth which hurts then try with your finger and push the gingiva around upper wisdom tooth and see if it hurts when pushing with the finger there.

 Pain in the gum around lower wisdom teeth:

 Again there are many reasons for pain in the gum around lower wisdom teeth but there are 2 cases that we do discuss them here. Again try with your finger and see if it is really the gingiva around lower tooth which hurts or not.

The first the reason for the pain can be because the upper wisdom tooth has been over erupting and when the patient bites the upper tooth bites on the gum which partially covering lower wisdom teeth. This is traumatising the gingiva around the lower tooth. Try to avoid biting on the area and contact your dentist because these types can very easily develop into an infection in the jaw.          

The second reason for pain around lower wisdom tooth can be because the lower wisdom tooth is partially covered by gum. This means that some times food and bacteria can get under the gum and causes infection in that area. Brushing the gingiva and the teeth carefully, sometimes causes this problem to occur less. However if you suffer with such discomfort contact a dentist because it can develop to an infection. This condition is called Periocronitis. Click here to see a video.

Pain in a tooth

toothache because of a cavity: 

Remove the food rest from inside the cavity and make inside the cavity clean. Put some clove oil in it. You can buy dental clove oil from chemist. Be careful too much clove oil will irritate your gum. Sometimes cold water helps to ease the discomfort for a short period of time. Contact your dentist.

toothache  because of infection in the jaw:

If you bite on a tooth and it hurts very much then it is possible that it has caused an infection in the jaw bone. Take analgesics and contact your dentist.

Broken Denture needs denture repair

If you denture has broken never try to fix it by using glue. These type of materials are highly toxic material and should not be used in contact with inside mouth tissues. Take the denture to a dentist for repair.

Denture rubbing against the gum

Use a denture fixative, sometimes it restricts the movement of the denture and helps. Otherwise contact the dentist.

Your Crown or bridge has become loose.

Generally speaking, it is not good to re-cement crowns and bridges back by yourself because they might become loose again and you could swallow them but however there are some temporary cementing materials available in the chemist shop to temporary fix your crown back, until you get to the dentist. But before doing this have a good look inside the the crown (or bridge). Is there remaining of the core inside? (a broken core inside the bridge?) then maybe there is not much point to try and re-cement your crown because it has no retention and can comes out. CLICK HERE to see a video.