Here is what to do in the next thirty minutes.
Urgent Dental Care Austin gets you to a dentist who can see you today. While you wait, this guide tells you exactly what to do, one emergency at a time.
Fig. 1
The pain starts first. Then comes the worry, and the question of who to call.
Each chapter opens to field notes you can follow with one hand while you hold the phone in the other.
An adult tooth put back within half an hour often survives. After an hour the odds fall fast.
The root is covered in living cells that reattach the tooth to bone. They dry out and die within minutes in open air. Milk keeps them alive. Tap water bursts them.
A child's baby tooth is different. Do not push a baby tooth back in. Call, and bring the tooth with you.
Pain that wakes you, or lasts past a day, means the nerve is involved. It does not settle on its own.
Decay or a crack has reached the pulp, the soft centre of the tooth. Pain that lingers after hot or cold, or that pounds when you lie down, points that way. A dentist can take the pain away the same day.
Small chips can wait a day. A break that hurts, bleeds, or shows pink at the centre cannot.
Look at the broken surface. White or yellow means the break is in enamel or dentin. A pink or red spot means the nerve is exposed, and that is a same-day visit.
A dental infection does not drain by itself. Left alone, it spreads.
Pain that suddenly stops can mean the nerve has died while the infection keeps growing.
Go to an emergency room or call 911 if you have trouble breathing or swallowing, swelling that reaches your eye or neck, or a high fever.
Rarely an emergency on day one. It becomes one if the tooth underneath is left open.
The tooth under a crown has been shaped down and has little enamel left. Exposed, it decays and cracks quickly.
While you wait
Keep your head raised and hold something cool against the outside of your cheek. Do not put aspirin on the gum, and do not chew on that side.
Then call. A dentist can tell you in one minute whether it can wait until morning.
Dentists in the United States number adult teeth from 1 to 32. Tap the one that hurts, then say its number when you call.
Upper right
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Fig. 2
Then the chair. Illustrative photography; Urgent Dental Care Austin connects you with a participating dentist.
A knocked-out or loosened adult tooth, bleeding that will not stop, swelling in the face or gums, and pain that keeps you from sleeping. A small chip with no pain, or a lost filling that does not hurt, can wait a day or two.
Go to the ER for trouble breathing or swallowing, swelling that is spreading toward the eye or neck, a possible broken jaw, or bleeding you cannot control. For everything else, see a dentist. Most hospitals can treat pain and infection, and cannot repair the tooth.
Often, yes. The best results come when the tooth is back in its socket within 30 minutes, and good results are still possible up to an hour if it was kept in milk.
Call the number on this page. If no office can see you before morning, the steps in this guide are what a dentist would tell you to do until then.
Over-the-counter ibuprofen or acetaminophen, taken as the label directs, plus a cold pack on the cheek. Do not place aspirin on the gum.
Do not put a baby tooth back in, because it can damage the adult tooth growing behind it. Press gauze on the spot, and call so a dentist can check that nothing is left in the gum.
Tell us what happened and which tooth. We find an Austin dentist who can see you today.
Eight short guides, written for someone reading them one-handed at two in the morning. If you would rather just ask, call 512-520-0787.
Emergencies, one page each
Every guide above is written for Austin specifically — Austin prices, Austin hours, Austin dentists. If you have been searching for an emergency dentist near me, a phone call finds the office with an open chair faster than a map does. Start with the full list of answers or the emergency services we handle.
Call now
Same-day appointments are limited. Call and we will connect you with an Austin emergency dentist.
Leave a number. If it cannot wait, call 512-520-0787 instead.