Kids don’t always know what’s going on when they have a problem with their dental health. They could be in pain, fighting infection, or otherwise uncomfortable due to their condition. When you have a pediatric dental emergency, it’s important to respond as quickly as possible to help your children get the expedient care they require.
The Importance of Pediatric Dental Care
Your child’s teeth and gums have an important impact on the rest of their health and development. If they have an accident or develop a serious condition and they don’t see a dentist, it could lead to serious complications in the future. These problems could result in life-long impacts, so keeping a close eye on their pediatric dental care is critical.
Potential Pediatric Dental Emergency Situations
There are many types of dental emergencies that could occur as your kids grow up:
- Broken teeth: Kids will be kids, and that involves a lot of childhood mishaps that could lead to dental issues. If teeth get broken during playtime, seeing a dentist will help your child retain the tooth if applicable, and have appropriate pain management.
- Lost teeth: After children lose their baby teeth, it’s bad news for a tooth to fall out. You have to act quickly to try and save the tooth. It’s also important to find out whether an underlying condition may be responsible for the tooth loss, if another cause is not apparent.
- Damaged jaw: Your kid may hurt their jaw if they get injured, which can be a painful condition that has an impact on dental health. By seeing an emergency dentist, you can help your child feel more comfortable and get them checked out to see whether treatment is required to address their jaw damage.
- Abscesses: You can’t exactly look in your kid’s mouth every day as they get older, and they may not realize what an abscess is until it causes a lot of pain. This serious infection could lead to major issues with their health, so getting them in to see a dentist as soon as possible is vital.
- Dental injuries: Other types of mouth injuries could require dental care, such as cuts inside the mouth, mouth ulcers, soft tissue damage, and other conditions. If you’re not sure whether a dental visit would be most appropriate for the situation, consulting your primary care physician or checking with urgent care or the emergency room will provide you with more insight.
Responding to an Emergency
It’s hard to stay calm when your child is in pain, but that’s exactly what you need to do during a dental emergency. You want to take stock of the situation and get as much information as possible as to what’s going on. Younger children may not be able to give many details, as they simply know that they’re not feeling well. Older children, however, may be able to better describe how they’re feeling, what happened, and what hurts.
Give the dentist all of this information when you bring your kid in, so they can quickly begin addressing the emergency. In some cases, every second counts, and you don’t want them to delay treatment while they gather basic information.
Getting an Emergency Pediatric Dental Appointment
Most dentists that provide emergency pediatric dental care will have this information on their website. They may have specific hours that emergency care is available or cover it 24/7. If the website doesn’t include these details, call in before bringing your child. In addition to emergency dental services, we offer a number of other services including:
Our team can answer whether they take emergencies, if you need an appointment, and how soon you could come in. Contact us at 832.430.7364 if you’re looking for emergency dental care for your children.
