Watch out for the Nutcrackers this Christmas; biting down on something hard could lead to a broken tooth and that could destroy more than just a nice Christmas meal and night of caroling. A broken tooth can cause sensitive nerves to become exposed. An exposed nerve can cause a lot of pain, which may make eating a warm sugar plum or drinking a cold glass of egg nog anything but a Christmas treat.

Most teeth are remarkably strong but they can chip, crack or break if they come into contact with something hard or are hit suddenly. The worst thing you can do when you break a tooth, even if it is on Christmas Eve, is to wait or try to ride out the pain until after the holidays. You have the best chance of saving a broken tooth if you get to the dentist within thirty minutes of the break.

If you break a tooth this holiday season or any time during the year, here’s how to take care of it:

• Look in your mouth and around you on the table or floor for broken pieces of tooth.
• Gather tooth pieces into a small bag or glass.
• See the dentist within 30 minutes if the entire tooth is knocked loose out of your mouth.
• Don’t touch any exposed roots.
• Rinse your mouth gently with saline solution or water.

There are a few simple tips you can follow as well to help prevent breaking a tooth in the first place. Avoid chewing on hard things like ice cubes, frozen candies and nuts. Wear a mouth guard when playing in sports, especially contact sports like football or soccer.

If you do break a tooth and don’t have a dentist or need help outside of normal office hours, Emergency Dental Care USA, Inc. may have a location near you where you can be seen to get your tooth fixed and pain relieved right away.

According to the American Dental Association, students miss 52 million hours of school each year due to dental related illnesses. Some dental and mouth injuries such as a bitten tongue, cracked tooth or bitten lip or cheek can be prevented by fastidious use of a mouth guard during sports activities.

It’s easy to bite your tongue and injure it badly if you or your child is playing soccer, football, basketball, volleyball or other contact sports without wearing a mouthguard. Your dentist can fashion a custom mouthguard tailored to fit your teeth or you can purchase a generic one at a sporting goods store. Either type helps prevent you from biting through your tongue inadvertently during a hit, serve, volley or kick.

Sometimes, children and adults can bite their tongues accidentally while eating. Chewing too fast or eating while doing other things like driving, watching TV or playing can lead to distracted eating which can sometimes result in a painful bite into the tongue. Dentists and emergency rooms see patients every day who’ve accidentally caused major damage to their tongues by biting.

If you or your child reaches for a carrot and inadvertently bites into tongue, there are a few simple steps you can take to relieve the pain before going to see the dentist or heading to the hospital:

• Clean - wet a clean washcloth with cool, clear water and gently wipe the tongue with the cloth
• Cool - set a cold compress from a first aid kit or your neighborhood drug store on the injured tongue; the cold compress will reduce swelling and help stop blood flow. If you don’t have a cold compress, try sucking on an ice cube or wrapping a few ice cubes in a thin, clean, wet cloth and applying the ice to the tongue.
• Call - if you’ve cleaned and cooled the tongue and it’s still bleeding after a few hours, see your dentist or head to the emergency room or your local urgent care office to have a doctor examine your tongue. Sometimes, if bites are bad enough, stitches may be needed to help the tongue heal properly.

Most tongue bites heal on their own relatively quickly. However, some severe bites do require medical attention. If you’ve gotten the bleeding to stop but are in pain, consider taking the recommended dose of an over-the-counter pain reliever such as acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen (Advil) to help get through the worst of the pain.

I remember it like it was yesterday. My family and I decided to try a new Chinese restaurant in town. Five minutes into my meal I heard a crunch and looked across the table at my husband who was covering his mouth with his hand. With a look of dread in his eyes he stated, “I think I just lost a filling.”

I searched his plate in the dim light while he went to the bathroom to check out his mouth in a mirror. Eventually, he was able to figure out which tooth a filling fell out of during a bite of dim sum, but we never did find the filling. We made an appointment with our dentist for my husband to have his tooth checked and a new filling put in place.

Facts About Fillings

Losing a filling is rarely an emergency. At the same time, it’s not something to ignore or it may turn into a problem involving dental decay and more expensive reconstructive surgery. Fillings are made from plastic or metals like gold or silver and are used to fill cavities in teeth.

Sometimes fillings fall out because a little decay manages to form beneath the filling. As the tooth decays beneath the filling, the filling loosens and can become dislodged from a bite on something hard or jagged. Once you loose a filling, your tooth may become painful or sensitive to heat, cold, sweet or salty foods. When a filling is gone, it leaves the tooth exposed to more decay.

Fill-Ins Until You Get to the Dentist

It’s best to make an appointment with your dentist so that you can have the tooth examined, cleaned and a new filling put in. While you’re waiting to see your dentist, you can try putting a little clove oil on the tooth as a natural pain reliever. You may also put a little denture sealant over the tooth to protect it until you can get in to see your dentist. Never use household glues on your teeth though as these are not meant for human consumption and can be dangerous.

Your dentist might want to file the tooth to reshape it after cleaning it to make sure its free of decay. He may also decide to place a crown over the top of the tooth to prevent the filling from coming loose and decay from forming on the tooth again.

Today we’re going to talk about toothaches — what causes them and more importantly, how to make them go away. Other than routine teeth cleanings, a toothache is one of the most common reasons someone goes to see a dentist.

A toothache is pain in and around a tooth. Toothaches are usually caused by cavities, which are a form of tooth decay. Sometimes though, a toothache may be the result of an infection or pain emanating from another part of your body, like your ear, neck or chest. Other common causes of toothaches include:

• Abscessed teeth
• Earaches
• Jaw injuries
• Heart attacks
• Sinus pain or pressure

Angina can sometimes radiate up the chest and shoulders to the jaw, where it is mistaken for a toothache. Direct blows to the jaw can result in injuries including lost, broken or aching teeth. Since part of our sinuses run along our jawlines, sinus pain and toothaches can often be confused with each other.

If your tooth pain becomes severe or lasts more than a few days, you should see your dentist. He or she will talk to you about your pain, examine your mouth and may take dental x-rays to determine the source of your pain and the best way to get rid of it. Your dentist may recommend an antibiotic, filling, root canal, or even pulling the tooth in severe cases to ease your pain.

Next time we’ll talk about what you can do to prevent toothaches. Between now and then, if you’re in pain, go see your dentist and start feeling like yourself again.

Bats, balls and gloves are important to take along when heading off to play baseball, softball and t-ball this summer. But Emergency Dental USA reminds parents to take along another important piece of equipment: a mouth guard.

Mouth guard use is very low, according to the American Association of Orthodontists. In a recent AAO survey, 70% of parents said their biggest fear when their children play sports is that they’ll be injured. But only 33% of the parents said their child wears a mouth guard while playing.

When a child playing ball gets hit, it’s a major impact. The average high school baseball pitcher can throw a fast ball with a speed of 75 to 85 miles per hour. Getting hit by a ball traveling this fast is like getting hit in the mouth by a speeding car, the AAO notes.

Parents can choose from one of three types of mouth guards for sports.

• A stock mouth guard is inexpensive and can be found in most sporting goods or discount stores. Because it can’t be adjusted for a custom fit, it offers the least amount of protection.

• A “boil and bite” mouth guard offers more protection. The form can be heated with hot water, then placed in the athlete’s mouth so it will adapt to the shape of the teeth.

• If needed, a custom-fit mouth guard can be created in your dentist’s office.

Emmitt Smith, former pro football player and father of four kids, has joined with the AAO to promote mouth guard use in sports. Check out their Web site for more information.

Parents and coaches all need to make the effort to ensure they’re players are wearing their mouth guards, says Michael Obeng, D.D.S, owner of Emergency Dental Care. “The best mouth guard in the world doesn’t do any good if it’s sitting on a bench while its owner is playing ball,” he said.

Source links:
American Association of Orthodontists
About.com-Dental Care-Mouthguard Types

It’s eight o’clock on a Tuesday evening. The softball game your children and the neighbor kids have been playing has suddenly taken an unexpected turn.

After an encounter with a fastball, your youngest outfielder is hit in the mouth with the ball, bringing the game to an end. Your child’s two front teeth have been knocked completely loose.

As you try to comfort your child, you have to make a decision quickly - Do you take your child to an area hospital emergency department or try and find a dentist who will return to the office after hours?

There is another option: Any Emergency Dental Care USA office in your area is equipped to handle such an emergency. 

But before you even get in the car to visit an Emergency Dental Care USA, there are important preventative measures that need to be taken.

Dr. Michael Obeng, D.D.S., founder of Emergency Dental Care USA, has this advise:

 - If the worst happens and a tooth is knocked loose or comes out, seek emergency dental treatment immediately.

- In the case of a tooth being knocked out, be careful not to touch the root. If the tooth is contaminated, rinse it gently with clean saline or water. Get to a dentist within 30 minutes.     

“The reason you want a dentist to replant the tooth right away,” explains Dr. Obeng, “is that once the tooth is out of the socket, the body is more likely to treat it as a foreign object. There’s a much better chance of saving the tooth if it’s out less than 30 minutes.”

Dr. Obeng says teeth that are out of the mouth for more than an hour have little chance of being successfully replanted. “It’s situations like these, when you need a dentist right away. If you’re near any of our offices in Portland, Phoenix, Denver, Colorado Springs, Minneapolis, Chicago or Des Moines, Emergency Dental Care USA is open every day from 9 a.m. to 9 p. m., including holidays.”

As Little League kicks off throughout the nation , kids aren’t the only ones working up a sweat. Nervous parents, many who have shelled out thousands of dollars in orthodontic care, are sweating on the sidelines in fear that their children will end up with a mouth injury.

In honor of National Safety Month, the experts at Emergency Dental Care, a franchise with clinics throughout the United States, offer some tips for keeping your child’s smile intact.

- To minimize the chance of injuring their teeth, young athletes who participate in both contact and non-contact sports should wear custom-fitted mouth guards.

- Athletes should visit their dentist on a regular basis to check for unusual tooth wear.

- If the worst happens and a tooth is knocked loose or comes out, seek emergency dental treatment immediately.

- In the case of a tooth being knocked out, be careful not to touch the root. If the tooth is contaminated, rinse it gently with clean saline or water. Get to a dentist within 30 minutes.

“The reason you want a dentist to replant the tooth right away,” explains Emergency Dental Care’s founder, Dr. Michael Obeng, D.D.S., “is that once the tooth is out of the socket, the body is more likely to treat it as a foreign object. There’s a much better chance of saving the tooth if it’s out less than 30 minutes.”

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