When It’s Time for Urgent Dental Care

Sometimes patients hesitate to get urgent dental care. They assume their issue can wait until morning, when in actuality the sooner they come to us the less lasting damage there will be to their oral health. Waiting to see the dentist can result in greater injuries and pain as well as more expensive restorative dental work in the future, so it’s good to know what is and what isn’t a dental emergency. Here are signs that it’s time for a visit to our urgent dental care office:

  • You are bleeding inside your mouth and it won’t stop. This includes injuries to the soft tissues of your mouth, including gums, tongue, and lips.
  • Your pain is no longer manageable. Severe pain is a sign of a severe problem, and should be addressed as soon as possible.
  • Lost tooth. The sooner you see a dentist after losing a permanent tooth, the greater the chance is they can save it.

Other issues like lost crowns, dental fillings, and a minor chip to your tooth are not usually emergencies. If you aren’t sure if your dental issue is an emergency or not, you can give our office a call and we’ll help you sort it out. Call us at 215-315-7691 and we’ll get you the information and answers that you need. If you’ve decided to wait for an appointment, you can call us for an appointment or request one through our website. We’ll do out best to get you in as soon as possible even if you aren’t an emergency case.

Categories: Cosmetic Dentist Tags: center city emergency dentist, Cosmetic Dentist, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, restorative dental care

Think you should just tough out the pain you are experiencing in your mouth? That could be a very bad idea. Whether it is a tooth, gums, or other soft tissues of your mouth pain is an indication that you need to come into our 24-hour emergency dentist. Pain is the body’s signal to you that something is wrong, and often when it comes to dental pain it is a sign of an infection. If these infections aren’t properly treated, they can spread quickly.

Once an infection begins to spread, it can cause damage to larger and larger areas of your mouth. Sometimes infections can become so severe that they can become life-threatening. That’s why visit an emergency dentist like Center City in Philadelphia is so important. You’ll get the treatment you need to help stop the spread of the infection, mitigate any damage that’s already been done, and get relief for your pain. It’s not only worth the visit, it could save your life.

Our dentist will always treat you with great care, compassion, and expertise. Even if your pain doesn’t turn out to be an emergency, we’d rather you come in for a visit than risk more damage by waiting at home. Get in touch with our 24-hour emergency dentist when you are experiencing oral pain. Emergency patients are welcome to come by our location at 220 S. 16th Street, Suite 901 in Philadelphia. If you have questions, you can call 215.315.7691. Whatever you do, make sure you take care of yourself by allowing us to take care of you!

Preventing Bone Loss Can Help You Avoid Needing An Emergency Dentist in Philadelphia

When you’re getting a check-up at a general dentist, ”bone loss” can be two of the scariest words you hear. We want you to help you do everything we can to make sure you never get there.

How can it be avoided? How can you avoid having pains associated with loose teeth and  needing an emergency dentist at 2 a.m.? Like most dental issues, it’s a partnership between you and your dentist that can avoid the road to gum disease.

Stage 1: Gingivitis – As you probably know, our mouths are full of bacteria. It comes from the food we eat, the people we kiss, and the times we put our hands to our mouth. Some of this bacteria love to eat at the enamel of teeth, and some like to dine on the food you leave in your mouth. The gummy stuff that forms on your teeth, mostly where the teeth meet the gums, is called plaque. This is what you have to remove daily with brushing and flossing. If it’s left too long, it becomes tartar and can only be removed by a dental professional.

Gingivitis can cause red, swollen, bleeding gum, and it’s important that you and your dentist treat it before it moves on to…

Stage 2: Periodontitis – While gingivitis is technically a form of periodontitis, it can be reversed and isn’t destructive like other forms of periodontitis. This is when the gums begin to pull away from the teeth and the bacteria are able to get deeper, and a constant infection occurs as your body fights the invaders. When it reaches this stage it’s often called “chronic periodontitis.” While all is not lost and a dentist can help you manage it, bone loss has started and you’ll want to stay on top of the situation so that it doesn’t get worse.

Stage 3: Tooth Loss – Go for too long without seeing a dentist and this may be unavoidable. Too much bone loss has occurred and the bone can no longer hang onto the tooth. If the tooth is loose it might have to be extracted. Tooth implants will then be necessary to put the needed pressure on your jaw so that the bone in our jaw doesn’t deteriorate.

Here’s the best part…catch it at the gingivitis stage and there’s a good chance you’ll avoid stages 2 and 3 altogether. With proper brushing and flossing (and regular dental visits), some people can reverse the process of gingivitis in as little as a month. Visit us as your general dentist and you might be able to avoid us as your emergency dentist!

What to Do When You’ve Knocked Out Your Tooth

Knocking out a tooth is both painful and worrisome. If you don’t end up caring for your knocked out tooth correctly, you could lose it permanently. That is not something you want, and it’s something that you can help avoid. Our urgent dental care facility in Philadelphia offers tips on what to do when you’ve knocked out a tooth:

  • Find the tooth. It can’t be replaced if you can’t find it, so priority number one is locating the tooth.
  • Keep it clean. Gently rinse the tooth off, but don’t remove any tissues that are still attached (they may be helpful in reattaching the tooth).
  • Put the tooth back in the socket, if at all possible.
  • If you can’t get the tooth back in, place it in a glass of milk. If you don’t have milk, tap water with table salt is the next best thing.
  • Call our urgent dental care as soon as possible.

The sooner you come to our urgent dental care facility in Philadelphia the better the chances are that we’ll be able to save your tooth. Minutes matter, so don’t waste anytime. Thankfully, we’re here 24 hour a day, 7 days a week, so no matter what time of the day or night you’ve knocked out a tooth, we will be here to help.

We’re located on south 16th street in the heart of Philly so we’re convenient to reach from nearly any location in the area. You can give us a call at 267-421-5379 or contact us through our website for your urgent dental care appointment today!

Why People Come to a 24 Hour Emergency Dentist

Our 24-hour emergency dentist sees a lot of people during the week. Because we’re open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, we never know what’s going to be coming through our door. There are, however, many things that are commonly treated by our 24-hour emergency dentist. If you are currently suffering from one of these or do in the future, come to us:

Pain in the Teeth or Gums
Tooth pain is no fun, and there is only so long most people can tolerate it before they need the help of our 24-hour emergency dentist. Toothaches are commonly caused by infections in the tooth or gums and may require an extraction or other dental procedure to get the infection and the pain under control.

Chipped, Broken, or Knocked Out Tooth
This is an important one to come to our 24-hour emergency dentist right away. Damage to your teeth can result in losing those teeth permanently if you don’t come into our office right away. If your tooth has been damaged, try to save as much of it as you can and bring it into our office.

Damage to Dental Work
A missing crown or lost filling can be painful. Our 24-hour emergency dentist can restore your dental work along with your smile and get you on your way again!

A visit to the 24-hour emergency dentist is no fun, but knowing that there is a dental team you can trust is a great thing. If you are in need of urgent dental care, call Center City Emergency Dentists today!

Going Under or Staying Awake: The Choice In Anesthesia When Visiting an Emergency Dentist In Philadelphia, PA

After you have a dental procedure, whether it’s with an emergency dentist or not, people will often ask “did they knock you out for that?” People usually want to know in order to gauge just how intense a procedure it was, and how much pain you might have experienced or avoided. Morbid curiosity.

If you’ve never undergone an extensive dental procedure before, you might be asking yourself: what are the advantage and disadvantage of general anesthesia vs. local anesthesia?

Staying awake (local anesthesia)

Benefits – You won’t be as groggy for the rest of the day, and most of the time you can drive yourself home. You’ll also be able to respond should a dentist ask you any questions.

Drawbacks – While you won’t feel the pain with local anesthesia, you can still feel the doctor working. If the procedure lasts too long it can get uncomfortable having your mouth open for such a time.

Going under (general anesthesia)

Benefits – You get knocked out, you wake up and it’s over. If you have extreme anxiety just having a cavity filled, then this might be the only way for you when you have a more extensive procedure.

Drawbacks – You’ll need to have someone drive you home because you’re going to be very tired. Also, because a licensed anesthesiologist must be used, it is more expensive to get general anesthesia.

The most important thing to realize is that you have an emergency dentist in Philadelphia, PA who has seen the pros and cons of each of these and will discuss them with you before the procedure. If you’re in need of restorative dentistry, contact us today.