How to Handle a Holiday Dental Emergency

After weeks of prepping for your big holiday dinner and decorating your home for the season, you’re finally ready to welcome your family in from out of town to celebrate the next couple of days together. Now, you feel as though there’s nothing left to get in your way or ruin the special occasion, so you can finally relax. As you wait on the arrival of your family’s flights, you reach down to snack on some homemade caramel candies you made. As you bite into one, you realize it didn’t set the way you wanted it to, and it was hard as a rock. Not a second later, you notice your mouth feels different, like there’s an extra gap in your smile that wasn’t there before. Read on to learn what to do during this holiday dental disaster.

Easing Discomfort From a Dental Emergency At Home

Experiencing a dental emergency just as you’re preparing to wind down and enjoy your holiday celebrations can feel like a complete disaster of a situation. Instead of panicking, it’s important to be prepared. You’re on a time-crunch because you don’t want to miss picking your family up from the airport, but you have such terrible tooth sensitivity that you can’t focus on anything else. Here are some tips to hold you over until you can get to your emergency dentist:

• Chips, Cracks, & Fractures: Rinse your mouth with lukewarm water and collect as many pieces of your tooth as possible. If you have a while before your family arrives, contact your emergency dentist first to see if they can fit you in their schedule. Cover your tooth with dental wax to block the nerves and smooth out any sharp edges.
• Knocked-Out Tooth: In this scenario, time is of the essence, so delegate someone else to pick up your family while you visit your emergency dentist. Collect your tooth, rinse it off (only handling it by the biting surface), and store it in a bag of milk to keep it moist. Be sure to bring it with you to your appointment.
• Severe Toothaches: After you rinse and floss around your tooth to remove any debris, take an over-the-counter pain medication to ease your discomfort. Pick up your family and visit your emergency dentist as soon as possible to get a diagnosis and find out what’s causing your discomfort.

Preventing Holiday Oral Mishaps

It’s easy to get carried away with getting ready for the arrival of your family, putting your oral health on the backburner. Even though accidents aren’t 100% avoidable (like biting into hard caramel that breaks your tooth), it’s a good idea to take extra precautionary measures to keep your stress to a minimum. Be sure to:

• Keep up with your dental hygiene routine.
• Visit your dentist for a checkup and cleaning before your family gets into town and you become too busy.
• Manage your stress to avoid teeth grinding and clenching.
• Break bad oral habits such as smoking and nail-biting.

If you find yourself in the midst of a dental dilemma, the first step you should always take is to contact your emergency dentist. They can walk you through any first-aid tips and fit you into their schedule as soon as possible to take care of the issue. With timely intervention, you can salvage all the hard work you’ve put into making the holiday season perfect for you and your family.

About the Author

Dr. Prachi Shah is passionate about helping her patients maintain the healthiest smiles possible by providing them with high-quality emergency dental care. She acts quickly to ease her patients’ pain and offers convenient evening appointment hours. She understands how stressful these situations can be, and with the added pain, it can cause a patient to feel anxious. That’s why she offers sedation techniques and pain-free laser dentistry to help get her patients in-and-out as fast as possible while helping them remain relaxed. For questions or to schedule an emergency appointment, visit South Arlington Dental Care’s website or call 817-860-2222.