Problems with your mouth or teeth can occur suddenly. You might be injured playing a sport, eating, or even just while doing a seemingly harmless activity. You should know what types of dental problems are considered emergencies, and what to do while waiting to see your dentist. Quick action can make a big difference in saving a tooth, or limiting damage to your mouth or face.
What is considered an emergency?
Not every dental problem must be treated as an emergency, but some do require professional treatment as soon as possible. This includes a broken or knocked out tooth, lost crowns and fillings, severe toothache, infection, and injuries to the soft tissues of your mouth.
What should I do?
See your dentist as soon as possible to treat the problem and prevent further damage. Here are some steps to take if you experience any of the following common dental emergencies:
- Severe toothache – rinse your mouth with warm water and floss to remove trapped food.
- Swelling – apply a cold compress on the outside of the swollen area. Do not place any painkiller or aspirin against your gums, because it can burn your gum tissue.
- Chipped or broken tooth – if possible, save the piece that has broken off. Rinse both the piece and your mouth with warm water. If it is bleeding, hold gauze on the area. Apply a cold compress to relieve pain and reduce swelling.
- Lost filling – apply dental cement from your drugstore to fill the hollow area until you can see your dentist. Or, try placing a bit of sugarless gum into the area.
- Lost crown –try to replace the crown on your tooth and hold it in place temporarily with dental cement, denture adhesive, or toothpaste.
- Abscess – infections in your mouth can become abscessed, which is a serious condition. Rinse with warm salt water and see your dentist immediately.
- Soft tissue injuries – treat damage to your gums, cheeks, tongue and lips by rinsing with warm salty water. Hold gauze to the specific area to control bleeding, and hold a cold pack to the external area.
We look forward to seeing you in our Ottawa dental office
The innovative approach to improving smiles through Invisalign has paved the way for beautiful smiles for people of all ages. Not just for children and teenagers, Invisalign appeals to adults all the way through to retirement ages. It’s never too late to transform your smile and regain your self-esteem when you have the option of Invisalign.
What types of problems does Invisalign address? In addition to simply straightening the teeth to achieve a more perfect smile, dental problems like gaps, overcrowding, overbites, underbites, open bites and cross bites can all be improved.
The process involves wearing customized invisible plastic aligners over your teeth. New aligner trays are provided every few weeks during treatment as your teeth gently move to their improved positions. The aligners are removable for easy dental hygiene, since normal brushing and flossing are possible instead of dealing with cumbersome wires and brackets. The clear plastic trays are nearly invisible in your smile, hugging your teeth securely allowing for no embarrassing slips or speech impacts.
Invisalign is possible for just about anyone with permanent teeth and healthy gums. Older patients are often at higher risk for gum issues, so correcting crooked teeth or overlaps is especially beneficial to help those patients avoid gum problems related to gaps or inability to clean teeth properly. Correcting misalignments can also prevent jaw or joint pain in the mouth, head, and neck area.
Patients over the age of 50 are seeking orthodontic treatment more than ever. As they age, many people want to avoid dentures when possible and Invisalign can provide a great option for making smiles look more appealing while also improving oral health. A beautiful smile can also improve your outlook on life, making you look and feel younger. An attractive smile positively impacts your overall attitude and appearance, and it’s possible with the help of Invisalign.
We treat patients from Ottawa and the surrounding area
Having straight teeth is a goal from young people through mature adults, and achieving a great smile without having to wear braces is a wonderful benefit. Awkward moments of a mouth full of metal, food particles stuck in your smile, and painful wires poking your cheeks are all erased. How do you make this happen? The answer is Invisalign.
Invisalign is an orthodontic solution that involves wearing a series of clear plastic aligners that fit right onto your teeth, and move them using slow pressure. They are nearly invisible and can be removed at any time, allowing you to follow your usual eating and hygiene routines.
The first step is taking impressions of your teeth and making a digital 3-D image so that an exact treatment plan can be created. You will be able to see how your teeth should look at each treatment stage. Your customized aligners will be made in a lab so that they fit comfortably yet do their job.
You will need to wear your aligners during the day and while you sleep, but remove them for eating and hygiene. You can even remove them for special occasions, as long as you strive to wear the aligners 22 hours each day. Roughly every two weeks, you will change to a new set of aligners that will advance you to the next stage of treatment. You will see your dentist about every six weeks for checkups.
Invisalign treatment lasts about a year for adults and about two years for teens. Your progress will be visible throughout treatment, motivating you to continue wearing them to transform your smile. Once your treatment is complete, you’ll have beautiful straight teeth and very few complaints about your orthodontic experience.
Our dental office is located in Ottawa
Everyone wants to have a whiter, healthy smile. Home teeth whitening has become an extremely popular means to achieve those pearlier whites in the past couple of decades. In many cases, over-the-counter whitening kits are effective and safe. However, there are some disadvantages and risks to using over-the-counter home whitening kits:
- Off-brand whitening kits often contain dangerous concentrations of bleach or peroxide. This can cause erosion of the tooth enamel, and irritation to the sensitive gums and soft tissues of the mouth.
- Because many kits contain trays that do not adhere properly to your teeth, gums can become irritated and chemicals can leak out and be ingested causing stomach problems.
- Poorly fitted trays and varying concentrations of chemicals from lower quality kits may also result in unwanted discoloration of teeth or uneven results.
- Exposure to excessively harsh chemicals in off-brand kits can also cause gum shrinkage and oral infections.
When considering at-home whitening, it is best to stick to name brand kits to ensure the quality and safety of the treatment. Many popular brands of kits are both safe and efficient when used as directed. In any case, you should not consider at-home whitening if any of the following apply:
- You have deep, untreated cavities.
- You are pregnant.
- You suffer from gum disease.
The safest and most effective method for whitening your teeth is to have treatment by a dental professional, either in-office or with professional take-home trays. A qualified dentist can whiten your teeth up to ten shades in as little as one office visit. Consult with your dentist before pursuing any type of whitening treatment to ensure you will achieve the whiter smile you desire in the safest and quickest manner possible.
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A toothache can ruin your life, at least until you have treatment that relieves the pain. Headaches, mouth pain, or inability to chew can all accompany a tooth problem. It is not unusual for tooth pain to be linked to tooth decay, and when it becomes advanced you just can’t ignore it. This is when root canal therapy is valuable.
What is the procedure?:
Root canal treatment focuses on the pulp cavity, which is the inside of the tooth. When the pulp is infected or inflamed, it needs to be completely removed from the tooth in order for it to heal. It doesn’t matter if the damage to the pulp results from severe decay, tooth fracture, faulty crown, repeated dental procedures, or trauma. Even if the damage isn’t visible or causing unbearable pain, the bottom line is that the interior of the tooth must be cleaned out, disinfected and sealed to prevent future infection. A crown is typically placed on top of the tooth to protect it and complete the procedure.
Why is it necessary?:
If left untreated, an infected pulp can lead to intense pain or spread to other parts of the body. Root canal treatment is the best way to save the tooth and restore its function. Other benefits of the procedure are maintaining the tooth’s natural look, protecting other teeth from excessive wear, restoring normal chewing ability, and allowing normal sensation and biting force.
How long does it take?:
The procedure is more routine than you might think. An experienced dental professional can complete the process is one or two appointments, depending on your specific case. Once the procedure is complete, your repaired tooth should last as long as the rest of your teeth.
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Wisdom teeth are the last adult teeth to erupt into the mouth, generally emerging between the ages of seventeen and twenty-one. They are the third set of molars and are in pairs: two each on the top and bottom arch of teeth. While some patients don’t have wisdom teeth, most do. Many of those who do have them don’t have enough room for those teeth to erupt fully, causing them to be wedged under the back of another tooth, impacted in the gum.
Impacted wisdom teeth are very difficult to clean, and can negatively affect the surrounding teeth. They are highly vulnerable to disease and decay and may lead to tooth pain and damage to adjacent teeth. For these and other reasons, a dentist may recommend that the teeth be extracted through oral surgery as soon as necessary to prevent any problems.
Extraction of wisdom teeth is typically an outpatient procedure done in an oral surgeon’s office. A healthy patient can proceed with a typical surgery, but if any infection is detected, the surgery can’t move forward until the infection is cleared up through the use of a full course of antibiotics. Once the surgery is moving forward, the surgeon’s team will administer some form of anesthesia to numb the area surrounding the tooth or to possibly sedate the patient through IV sedation dentistry.
After the anesthesia has fully taken effect, the surgeon makes an incision to open the gum and to remove any bone that is blocking the tooth from extraction. The tissue connecting the bone to the tooth will be separated and the tooth will be removed. In some cases, the surgeon will have to break the tooth into smaller pieces to make it easier to remove. After thoroughly cleaning the area and removing any remaining debris, the incision will be closed, stitched and packed with sterile cotton gauze to staunch any bleeding.
The surgeon will provide aftercare instructions. Patients should follow these instructions to the letter in order to ensure the best and fastest healing of the surgical site.
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