Did your crown come off, or did a filling come loose? You can temporarily fill the gap with sugarless gum or dental cement. Don’t use sugared gum; it will cause pain. If a crown comes off, find it and bring it with you. If possible, reattach it with over-the-counter dental cement or denture adhesive. Beyond pain relievers, clove oil (can be found in a drug store or in the spice aisle of the grocery) can alleviate pain and sensitivity when applied directly to the area.

Can this wait until the next business day or is it an emergency? As with the potential cracked tooth discussed above, it comes down to a question of pain and potential infection. If your crown comes off, it’s not necessarily an emergency. We can cement it back on the next business day. But if the crown came off and now the tooth under it that had a root canal has exposure into the top of the tooth, that could be an emergency. If you break a bridge, that’s probably not an emergency.

But if there are sharp pieces of the bridge exposed, it could be. Bottom line? If you wonder if a situation you are facing is an emergency, call us at The Smile Centre and we can decide together if we need to see you immediately or the next business day.