Often, the first sign of a dental emergency is the pain. Dental pain can be severe and you should never delay seeking treatment.

Dental emergencies

Our highly experienced and caring dentists at Smile Essential can provide emergency dental care for any of the following dental emergencies:

• Toothache
• Abscess
• Swelling
• Root canal
• Accidents and oral trauma
• Sports injuries to your mouth
• Swelling of the mouth or gums
• Damaged or broken denture
• Loose crowns

You should seek immediate advice if you experience any of the following:

• Severe bleeding dental bleeding as a result of an accident
• Severe dental pain
• Bleeding from an extracted tooth which you cannot stop.
• Sudden and severe swelling around the tooth, gum or mouth.

How to manage pain and discomfort

A toothache is often regarded as one of the worse pains a person can experience, but that doesn’t mean pain relief medication can’t be effective. Many over the counter pain relief medications such as paracetamol and ibuprofen are effective at treating the pain or at least reducing its intensity. There are also stronger pain relief medications available and when looking for the best way to deal with the pain it’s recommended that you gain advice from your local pharmacist, dentist or GP. Of course, you should always read the medication instructions to check they are suitable and if in doubt seek advice from an appropriately trained professional.

Old wives tales

Most old wives tales don’t work and can actually do more harm than good. Avoid strong concentrations of clove oil as this can burn and irritate the fragile gum tissue. Also soaking alcohol next to the tooth can irritate the gum and cause further discomfort.

Old wives tales you can try, include ice packs to reduce facial swelling and salt water rinses are excellent for healing gums.

Remember a dental emergency is often caused by avoiding regular dental health checks or delaying required treatment. Even if your symptoms subside you should still arrange an appointment for your local dentist to review.

Registered patients

We aim to see all of our registered patients on the same day, so long as you give us a call us before 10 am. On certain occasions, this may not be possible but we will offer advice on what to do and aim to give you an appointment within 24 hours.

If your emergency occurs outside of practice hours such as evening and weekends then we will have emergency information on our practice answer phone.

Unregistered patients

Even if you are not registered at our practice, we will still provide you with emergency dental care. We will treat any patient, on the same day if possible, for a fixed fee. While we may not be able to carry out permanent or definitive treatment, such as root canal treatment, at this appointment, we will be able to dress the tooth and do whatever is necessary to help relieve the pain. We will never leave a patient in pain. You may require follow-up appointments, either at our practice or with your own dentist if you are registered elsewhere.

If you are having a dental emergency outside of usual working hours and aren’t registered to a dentist then you should ring 111 for advice and guidance on your local service.

To speak to our team give us a call 0116 2891317

Hot Roast Potatoes – Listen, we love a roast potatoes as much as the next person but those little roasties can be a furnace of heat! It isn’t roast potatoes we’re advising against but burning hot roasties that could cause you some serious mouth burns.

Toffee – This one tends to be a Christmas a special. If you’ve ever had jaw ache from chewing toffee you’re not alone. But all that chewing could dislodge a filling, we see this so often in the dental clinic. Another drawback of toffee is the sticky sugary nature of it, it gets stuck to your teeth and causes them to be under attack for longer.

Ice cubes – We’ve seen a few people at Smile Essential Dental Practice with broken teeth or fillings after chewing on ice cubes. It’s surprisingly common for people to suck on ice cubes. They may be sugar-free but the irresistible urged to crunch could land you an unnecessary trip to see the dentist.

Pens – Whilst they’re not very tasty this little pen nibbling habit could chip one your front teeth. Absent-mindedly chewing on pen lids or tops is notorious for creating little chips in your teeth. If you have already have had dental work done such as crowns, veneers or fillings it could chip them off, making that a very expensive habit.

Bottle and jar lids – It’s frustrating not being able to get into your favourite jar of pasta sauce or open a beer when you can’t find a bottle opener, but do so at your peril! The extra pressure you put on your teeth might cause a crack so big it requires extensive dental treatment.

M&M’s – Yes we love M&M’s too! M&M’s are high in sugar but that’s not what has earned them a place in ‘7 things you should never put in your mouth’, it’s the hard nature of them. Again we have seen patients that were munching away on M&M’s and broke a filling. If you haven’t got any fillings approach with caution and keep in moderation but if you have a number of fillings it’s probably best to avoid altogether.

Fizzy drinks – Fizzy drinks are a cocktail for decay, they combine many various negatives components. The high sugar content which causes decay combined with the acidity with weakens the teeth, the frequent sipping keeps your teeth under attack and the fact the liquid washes around all of your teeth makes it a recipe for disaster. This includes diet fizzy drinks.