Emergency Dentistry

A dental emergency is any oral problem that needs prompt attention to stop pain, save a tooth, or keep an infection from spreading. The most common ones we treat include:

• Severe or persistent tooth pain that over-the-counter relief no longer controls.
• A knocked-out, broken, or badly cracked tooth.
• A lost filling or crown that leaves sensitive tooth structure exposed.
• Facial swelling, a dental abscess, or uncontrolled bleeding.
• Traumatic injuries to the teeth, gums, or soft tissue of the mouth.

If you are not sure whether what you are feeling rises to the level of a dental emergency, call us anyway. We would far rather see you, take a look, and rule out a problem than have you wait at home while a small issue becomes a bigger one. A quick phone call costs nothing, and our team can help you judge how urgent your situation really is.

Yes. You do not need to be an established patient to receive emergency dental care from us. Whether you have been coming here for years or you are calling for the very first time because a dental emergency caught you off guard, you are welcome, and we treat you with the same urgency and care either way.

When you call, let our team know what is happening and roughly how much pain you are in, and we will work to get you seen as quickly as possible, very often the same day. Same-day emergency appointments are available across our Orland Park, Frankfort, and Oak Lawn offices, so there is a familiar, fully equipped dental team near you ready to help when you need it most.

Act quickly, because a knocked-out tooth is one of the most time-sensitive situations in emergency dentistry. Pick the tooth up by the crown, the part you normally chew with, and avoid touching the root. If it is dirty, rinse it gently with water, but do not scrub it or wipe away any attached tissue.

If you can, ease the tooth back into its socket and hold it there by biting softly on a clean cloth. If it will not go back in, keep it moist by tucking it in a cup of milk or holding it inside your cheek. Then call us and get to the office. Reaching us within 30 minutes gives you the best chance of saving the tooth, so treat this as the genuine dental emergency it is.

Often, yes, though it depends on where the crack sits and how deep it runs. A shallow crack in the enamel may need nothing more than smoothing or a filling, while a tooth that is cracked into the inner pulp usually needs root canal therapy followed by a crown to hold it together and protect it from further damage.

Some fractures, particularly those that extend below the bone line, are too deep to save, and in those cases an extraction is the safer path. The only way to know for certain is a prompt exam, ideally before the crack has a chance to spread, which is why a cracked tooth is worth treating as a dental emergency. To find out where yours stands, our doctors will evaluate the crack, often with an X-ray, and walk you through every option before anything is decided.

While you wait for your emergency appointment, a few simple steps can take the edge off. Take an over-the-counter pain reliever as directed on the label, rinse gently with warm salt water to calm the area and cut down on bacteria, and hold a cold compress against the outside of your cheek in short intervals to ease swelling and numb the ache. Sticking to soft foods and avoiding anything very hot, very cold, or very sweet will help you keep from setting off the pain.

One important caution: never rest an aspirin tablet directly against the gum or tooth. It does not work that way and can actually burn the soft tissue. These measures are meant to keep you comfortable in the short term, not to fix the underlying cause, so call us and come in. Lasting relief in a dental emergency comes from treating the source of the pain, not just masking it.

Most of the time, a dental office is actually the better place for a dental emergency, because hospital emergency rooms are not usually staffed or equipped to repair teeth. There are, however, real situations that call for the ER first: bleeding that will not stop with steady pressure, swelling that is spreading toward the eye or down the neck or making it hard to breathe or swallow, a possible broken jaw, or trauma that involves other parts of the body.

In those cases, the hospital can stabilize you and manage the most serious risks, and we can follow up afterward to take care of the dental side. For toothaches, broken or knocked-out teeth, lost crowns, and infections, though, our office offers more focused and more effective emergency dentistry than a typical ER, so when in doubt about a tooth, start with a call to us.