Same Day Emergency Dental Appointments
No matter what your dental concern,
if you are experiencing pain or discomfort please call us
on 9592 5947
We will do our best to ensure that you can be seen by a dentist at our Brighton Dental Clinic on the same day.
In the event of an dental emergency during business hours, please call us so that we can triage your level of care and structure an urgent appointment accordingly.
Please leave a message on our answer phone if you cannot get through to us as we may just be busy serving another client and we will return your call as soon as possible.
However some situations arise outside of business hours which call for more urgent action.
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Dental Emergencies
When a tooth is knocked out:
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Wash the tooth in milk or saline without touching the root
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Replace the tooth in its socket immediately
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Or carry the washed tooth to the dentist in a glass of milk or wrapped in glad wrap
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If you have a swollen face
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it is most likely that you have an infection. It is vital that you see a dentist immediately or seek urgent medical attention so that if antibiotics are required they can be provided until you can visit the dentist. Generally antibiotics are not required and most importantly the cause of the infection is found and treated accordingly.
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​Other dental emergencies:
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A broken or chipped tooth or filling, even if not painful should not be ignored. The exposed tooth will likely decay if left untreated.
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The best treatment for a toothache is immediate dental attention. Only some short term benefit can be gained from analgesics from the pharmacist. Toothache drops and similar preparations are often ineffective. A tooth that is tender to bite on, or throbs may in fact be developing quite a severe infection. Seek immediate dental advice.
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If a tooth is sore to bite on following dental treatment, sometimes the filling or crown may just need a slight adjustment to fit your bite more readily.
Remember if we cannot be reached at our Brighton Dental Clinic, the dental hospital operates everyday including public holidays until 10pm for such situations.
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Broken and Chipped Teeth
Often occurring unexpectedly when you may be at a nice restaurant or biting into a piece of toast when you are running short on time as you are about to start your busy day.
More often than not there may have been an old filling which was due for replacement soon anyway or in extreme cases there was an underlying crack in the tooth. It is always best to get the problem sorted sooner rather than later so the remaining tooth structure can be preserved and any further damage is minimised.
Toothaches
Sensitivity - to cold , sweet food or hot, cracked teeth, decay, erosion, grinding, abrasive lesions
The great thing about modern dentistry is that we aim to preserve natural teeth, and there are several treatment options available for helping to extend the life of a damaged or decayed tooth. However, extensively damaged or badly decayed teeth may still need to be removed (extracted).
Wisdom Tooth Pain
Wisdom teeth can also contribute to various dental problems, including overcrowding of the existing teeth, and can often be impacted (where the wisdom tooth grows at an angle and butts into the next-door molar tooth or the gum) also requiring extraction. When they don't erupt normally, our advice is to have them removed at your earliest convenience.
Some people put this off, thinking that if their wisdom teeth aren't bothering them, that they should leave them alone. The reason this is unwise is that complications from wisdom tooth surgery greatly increase the older you get. If you wait until they bother you, the extractions will be very difficult with serious risks of complications. If, however, they can be removed in your late teens or early twenties, complications are much milder and less likely to occur.
Some wisdom teeth can safely be removed in our practice under local anaesthetic with Dr Fraser's expert care. In certain cases, where there are underlying complications it may be necessary for us to refer you to an oral surgeon or to have your teeth removed as a day surgery procedure at a local hospital under general anaesthesia which we can arrange.
Root Canal Treatment (Endodontics)
Root canal Treatment (RCT) is a procedure that replaces a tooth's damaged or infected pulp inside the middle root space of a tooth with a filling. The 'pulp' is a sensitive tissue that provides the oxygen, nutrients and feeling to the tooth. It is housed in the hollow centre of a tooth (pulp chamber), along with blood vessels and nerves. Once a tooth is fully formed, nutrition for the tooth comes from the tissues surrounding the root, and the tooth cannot live without its pulp.
During root canal treatment, the pulp is removed from a tooth. The dentist cleans and shapes the root canals with a drill and small files. The tooth's interior is cleaned, dried and packed with a filling material that goes all the way down to the end of the root. A root canal may need to be performed over a number of appointments. Once it is completed the top of the tooth will need to be restored with either a porcelain crown or a large overlay filling to protect and seal the crown as well as the underlying root canal space.
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There are a few symptoms that mean you might be heading for a root canal—
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Severe pain while chewing or biting
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Pimples on the gums
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A chipped or cracked tooth
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Lingering sensitivity to hot or cold, even after the sensation has been removed
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Swollen or tender gums
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Deep decay or darkening of the gums
Root canal treatments can save dead, diseased, discoloured or abscessed teeth from unnecessary extractions. They have a very high success rate. Most people prefer to save their tooth because it will generally function better than an artificial tooth. Your own tooth is usually stronger and more efficient for biting and chewing. A tooth which requires root canal treatment has usually become infected or inflamed because of dental decay, trauma, gum disease, a crack, chip, or broken teeth, extreme wear or neglect. Sometimes the tooth is beyond saving with root canal treatment and it may need to be removed. There are always other options to restore the remaining gap and these can include porcelain tooth coloured bridgework or dental implants.
TMJ (Jaw Joint Concerns) and Headaches
Believe it or not a large number of headaches are caused by the way in which your teeth fit together. By analysing your bite and making fine adjustments to the shape of your teeth we can often bring you rapid relief from many persistent and annoying headaches. The same treatment can also relieve related problems such as a stiff neck or sore shoulders.
Bruxism is the name given to conscious or unconscious habits like teeth clenching and grinding that exert excessive stress on the joint and wear out the cartilage. Bruxism is the leading cause of TMJ Syndrome, however misaligned teeth, stress, anxiety and certain medications like antidepressant drugs are known to exacerbate the causes of TMJ Syndrome.
The symptoms of TMJ Syndrome are varied in type and level of discomfort:
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headaches; ringing in the ears;
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'popping' and 'clicking' sounds when opening/closing mouth;
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neck or back pain or facial/muscle pain, often in the jaw area.
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TMJ syndrome can be treated with a host of solutions - from dental devices such as splints talked about earlier, physiotherapy and jaw movement exercises to surgery in advanced cases.
There is now also the option of a minimally invasive procedure which is safe and reliable involving botox application directly into the masseter muscle. This large muscle moves the jaw and when it is always tensed can be responsible for the clenching and grinding.
Depending on the individual, treatment normally involves 5 or 6 relatively painless injections into the masseter muscle, which takes a few minutes (per side) to administer.