Get your dental emergency sorted in 4 easy steps:
1. Get your dental emergency
2. Call us on 01922 624900
3. Visit us and GET YOUR PROBLEM SORTED
4. Go home, relax, and carry on with your day !
When a dental emergency strikes, you need a reliable and professional dentist fast. At The Dentist West Midlands, our team of experienced dental practitioners is here to help.
We understand that dental emergencies don’t always occur during office hours. You can call us about your dental emergency 24-hours a day and we’ll be here for you.
Whether you’ve been suffering for a few days and feel that the pain is getting worse, you’ve been kept awake by a toothache, or you need immediate treatment due to severe pain or bleeding, our emergency dental service is available.
Our emergency dental care is suitable for patients who have a dental issue that needs immediate attention.
Emergency appointments are available – call 01922 624900.
What Should I Do if I Have a Dental Emergency?
Ring us during working hours on 01922624900. Or book on online by clicking on ‘Book online’ at the top of this page. You don’t have to be registered with our practice to receive emergency treatment. Give us a call to explain your symptoms and we will do our best to provide a suitable solution.
Call Our 24-Hour Support Line*
We pride ourselves on giving the best care to all our patients. We want to make sure our dentistry is effective, good-quality and as comfortable and pain-free as possible. If you come to our office be rest assured that you’ll be treated with dignity and respect. We’ll do everything we can to ensure you have a great experience. We know that some people are nervous about seeing the dentist, so our friendly and dedicated team will put you at ease. Your appointments will be as calming and stress-free as possible, and we’ll explain everything a pace that suits you.
24-Hour Support Line*
Sometimes it can be difficult to know whether you have a dental emergency or not. If you are in severe discomfort or if a dental problem is causing additional symptoms, you are likely in need of immediate attention.
If you’re not sure of the best course of action, our 24-hour helpline is here to give you the information you need. Give us a call and we can help you decide on a treatment suited to your situation.
If you are experiencing one of the following dental emergencies, please call us immediately on 01922624900:
- Severe toothache or swelling
- Wisdom tooth pain
- Knocked out tooth
- Fractured or cracked teeth
- Loose teeth
- Loose filling
- Infection
- Dental crown has fallen out
- Broken brace wire which is cutting into your gum/cheek
Book Evening and Weekend Appointments
If your dental emergency can wait until a scheduled evening or weekend appointment, please call us to arrange a convenient time for an appointment. We know how difficult it can be to fit in dental treatment during the normal 9-5 working day, which is why we offer our patients a selection of appointments in the evenings (until 11 pm) and at the weekends.
How Do I Contact the Dentist for an Emergency Appointment?
If you’re not sure if you’ve got a dental emergency or you need some advice on a dental problem, give us a call and we can assist you. To book your appointment or for help, call us on 01922624900.
Broken tooth
Broken tooth
When a tooth is broken and hurts, you have to assess how deep the break and the bacteria is.
A break in only the enamel won’t hurt, because enamel isn’t sensitive.
If sharp, it may rub on your tongue or lip and cause an ulcer.
Treatment: A small filling or may just be smoothed down.
Broken / decayed dentine.
A problem in the dentine causes sensitivity. It starts when cold or hot gets to it and normally lasts a few seconds only.
Treatment: A filling or root filling.
I have a hole going into the nerve.
When the pulp is infected, the tooth becomes very sensitive. It may throb, be worse on lying down and when exercising,the pain is continues and it spreads until it is unbearable. Pain killers stop working at this stage. Treatment: Either a root filling or extraction by our emergency dentist. Decay into the pulp is known as pulpitis and it is where the nerve inside the tooth is exposed to bacteria. You feel pain radiating throughout your face and throbbing continuously, especially when trying to sleep or exercise.
Treatment: Root filling or extraction by your emergency dentist.
Abscess and apical periodontitis
An abscess is a collection of pus that has built up inside the teeth, gums or the bone that holds the teeth in place., common term ‘infection’.
This is one of our most common complaints we receive as an emergency. People have had a tooth broken a few months, it hasn’t hurt or they controlled it with painkillers, so they left it, and now the pain comes ‘with a vengeance’.
The pain stops when the pulp ‘dies’, and it may be a few months or years before an abscess forms. The abscess is at the bottom of the tooth, maybe pain-free or very severe pain. It feels like a deep pressure and the tooth is very sensitive to tap or touch. The tooth may feel wobbly and raised and hurt when biting. The abscess may cause severe swelling, or may be just a lump coming from the gum which occasionally bursts or leaks pus.
Treatment: Either a root filling or an extraction by our emergency dentist. It may need antibiotics first in some cases. If severe it may need urgent attention as it may progress into a life threatening problem. Taking antibiotics is a temporary solution, the problem will always come back. Best is to go for a permanent treatment which entails a root filling or extraction.
Tooth abscess on an adult
Tooth abscess (or PAP)
The tooth is sensitive to touch and may feel wobbly. It may have been broken for sometime or you may have had a deep filling done on the tooth a few days or months ago. Your immune system may not be working as well as normal due to poor diet or stress.
Treatment: Root filling or extraction by your emergency dentist.
Tooth fracture
A fractured tooth root is often discovered when surrounding bone and gum becomes infected. Fractures are often a result of long term progression, injury/trauma or they can sometimes just be unlucky from biting down on ice, pens, popcorn kernels and if the tooth breaks in such a way it may not be unrestorable. Unlike a broken bone unfortunately a fractured tooth will not heal.
Is a broken/damaged tooth causing you sensitivity?
Sensitivity is when the nerve swells up, this feeling may or may not go away after sometime, if this feeling doesn’t go away after a while then you may require a RCT – see below for more information:
If YES: Root canal treatment (RCT)
If NO (either of the below may be required):
Composite filling
Crown
Tooth extraction and replacement
Gum disease
Gum disease has different stages gingivitis which is early stages of gum disease, periodontitis which may have small pockets below the gum line which food may get trapped and the advanced periodontistis which is the last stages of gum disease. Here we talk about the most common form – chronic gum disease. It progresses slowly, over the years and early preventative treatment is best to stop it. It eventually results in tooth loss and is often the reason why people need dentures when they get older.
Late stage gum disease:
Gum disease is a common condition where by the gums become sore, swollen and infected. You will know if you have gum disease as your gums may bleed when brushing or if you have bad breath.
If gum disease isn’t treated at the earlier stage it can develop into a condition that’s called Periodontitis, which affects the tissues around the teeth that help support the tooth. If this condition continues it can cause the bone in your jaw to decay. This will then eventually cause the tooth to become loose and they may eventually fall out. Chronic gum disease becomes acute gum disease causes pain.
What Can Be Done?
Maintain good oral hygiene
Stop smoking
Attend regular dental checkups
See a Hygienist if your dentist advises you to
Intense toothache When a toothache gets so bad that pain killers don’t work, you can’t sleep and the pain is continuous, you need to see a dentist ASAP. You may have one of several conditions.
When gum disease is left untreated, it may cause an infection. The tooth may be wobbly and painful to touch. The gum is tender to touch and may bleed when brushing. Your immune system may not be working as well as normal due to poor diet or stress. You are more likely to get this if you smoke or have uncontrolled diabetes.
Treatment: Cleaning the tooth and regularly visiting the dentist or hygienist in your emergency dentist.
Are your Wisdom Teeth causing you pain?
Often people are referred to hospital for their wisdom teeth extraction. However, they can’t wait for the hospital, so they come to us, who aim to remove your wisdom tooth for you on the first appointment, even if it needs a surgical operation.
If the tooth is right at the back, and typically your age is 18-25 or more at times, your wisdom tooth may be coming through. You might find it hurts on biting or that you can’t open your mouth wide. The gum at the back maybe swollen and growing over the tooth.
Treatment: Cleaning, may need antibiotics/extraction if severe or recurrent or causing other problems.
Note that the picture below. The red arrow points to the gum which is swollen. this is the most common are of pain. The gum sometimes swells up and seems to grow over the tooth. Typically the area will become tender to bite on. The black arrow is food getting trapped on the top of the wisdom tooth. This causes decay in the wisdom tooth and the tooth in front of it. It would be a shame to loose both teeth as a result of this, so it is important to come in for an assessment to minimize damage as soon as possible.
Wisdom tooth pain can be pretty unbearable and can occur out of nowhere. It can be very painful and unexpected and can cause swelling to the affected area.
If you’re in an emergency situation and need something doing about it we can help you, we offer a 24 HOUR EMERGENCY HELPLINE, including all weekends and bank holidays. We have extracted many wisdom teeth in emergency situations and will always try and resolve the pain that patients are going through. In the instance that we are unable to extract the tooth, we will refer patients on the same day to either the Birmingham Dental Hospital or Manor Hospital for further treatment.
However in the meantime, we have the following advice for patients suffering from Wisdom Tooth Pain:
To clear the infection.
To do this mix a few spoonfuls of salt with warm water and thoroughly rinse out your mouth repeatedly. This will wash out the infection and reduce pain.
If you seek help from an emergency dentist they may try and wash out the infection, by using antiseptic mouthwashes and syringing out the infection.
To reduce the swelling use ice wrapped in a towel. This will help reduce the pain.
You should also take painkillers to ease the pain, such as Paracetamol or Ibuprofen (always read the label first and only if you are not allergic to any of these)
In an emergency you can try to numb the pain with over the counter medicines such as Orajel. However this is only advice if the pain is very severe and you should still call our emergency dentist ASAP.
If you have problems breathing or swallowing you should call 999 A&E as this can be very dangerous as it maybe that the swelling from your wisdom tooth is blocking your airway.
Tooth has come out (trauma)
An Avulsed Tooth is when a tooth has completed displaced from its socket in alveolar bone, owing to trauma.
If a tooth is avulsed, you must make sure that it’s a permanent tooth, as primary teeth should not be replanted.
You Must Follow This Guide When In This Situation:
The patient should be kept as calm as possible
Find the tooth that’s been knocked out. Pick the tooth up by the white part, which is known as the crown. Avoid physically touching the root.
If the tooth is dirty, briefly wash it for about 10 seconds under cold running water and re-position it. Encourage the patient/parent/partner/friend to replant the tooth.
Bite down onto an handkerchief to kept the tooth in position.
If this is not possible, place the tooth in a suitable storage container, e.g. a glass of milk. The tooth can also be transported in the mouth, keeping it between the molars and the inside of the cheek. However, if the patient is very young, you shouldn’t do this in case they swallow it, therefore it is advisable to get the patient to spit in a container and place the tooth in it. Avoid storage in water!
Seek Emergency Dental Treatment Immediately.
Bridge or crown fallen has out
When a bridge or crown comes out, what we must first think about is: Why did it come out?
The glue stopped working
This is the best situation because it is simply a matter of sticking it back in. When we stick the bridge or crown back in, we need to make sure that the tooth and crown / bridge is dry and clean so that the glue works as well as possible. Treatment: Glue it back in by your emergency dentist.
It’s not fitting well
The crown or bridge needs to be well fitting to the tooth that it is supported by. The tighter the fit and the more physical support that the tooth underneath offers, the better the crown or bridge will last.
Treatment: To make a new crown / bridge if possible by your emergency dentist.
The tooth underneath is too weak or broken.
You need enough height and width of the tooth to support a crown or bridge (approx 2mm). The longer the bridge, the more strength the supporting teeth will need. Many times we see the tooth underneath has sheared off and broken and cannot be glued back on.
Treatment: To make a new crown / bridge if possible by our emergency dentist.
Broken tooth
It’s catching on the bite
When there is too much force on the crown / bridge, for example it catches when you are eating or grinding your teeth, it will come off.
Treatment: To adjust the biting surface of the crown / bridge or make a new one by your emergency dentist.
Denture problems
If your Denture has broken or is slightly cracked in a certain area the best option for you would be: Visit our Emergency Dentist – The dentist can then send it back to the lab for repair work and to fix the denture. Sometime we need to take an impression (mould) of your teeth so that we can put the pieces back in the right place.
Getting a New Denture – Consider getting one that’s made of a better material, for example a Metal Cobalt Chrome Denture or one made of High Impact Acrylic.
Loose Dentures
Loose dentures can be a common problem for many people. There are many reasons why they can become loose, here are just some of them reasons:
- It could be that there was a problem with impressions, measurements taken or even the bite.
- Bone resorption when the gums no longer have to hold teeth in place the body then tries to reclaim bone mass after the teeth are lost, which causes the bone supporting your teeth that now supports the dentures.
- Dentures may be too large and therefore require trimming down, by a dentist.
Everyday wear and tear your dentures can physically go out of shape leaving them loose and uncomfortable.
If you fail to take good care of your dentures, or have general poor oral hygiene, because of damage to the false teeth themselves or infection and bleeding of the gums where the dentures fit, implications can be significant.
Solutions to loose dentures:
Denture Adhesive
There are many on the market and they all work well if your dentures are slightly loose, they work like a glue and are very effective. For example Poligrip is a form of denture adhesive.
Denture relines
Adding denture plastic to the part of the denture that isn’t fitting correctly will improve the stability of the denture
Adjusting the shape of the denture
Often a denture falls out when you open wide because the muscles are pushing the denture out of place – it needs to be adjusted
Changing the bite of the denture
If the denture becomes loose when you eat it might be that the forces of the teeth on each other aren’t balanced. Best to check and adjust how the teeth are shaped.
Broken braces
Has your brace wire snapped off causing it to jab into the side of your cheek or gum? The best thing to do firstly would be:
- To try and push the wire back into place using the eraser end of a pencil (be careful). If this doesn’t work then place a small cotton ball or the orthodontic wax you get from your dentist for your braces, and cover the end of the wire that is sticking out.
- You should never attempt to cut the wire yourself as this can be a choking hazard! When left untreated, ulcers and infections can form.
- However, you can’t always get into you orthodontist in time to get the problem fixed. If you cant then call us.
- Our emergency dentist can see you and cut or smooth off the sharp bit so that it doesn’t cause complications, or we may be able to replace the wire or re-fix the item perfectly so that you can be comfortable.
Dry socket, Acute Alveolitis
Dry socket happens about 10% of times after we take teeth out. It is essentially an infection of the socket and may happen even if you follow all of the instructions about how to prevent complication. If you get a “dry socket”, you might get a bad taste in your mouth or the pain may be getting worse over time, call us as you may need to get it cleaned and maybe get some antibiotics from our emergency dentist.
Painkillers
Many people start taking painkillers such as codeine when they get a toothache. In general we always advise Paracetamol and Ibuprofen (always read the label). You can maximise the dose of both, but avoid ibuprofen if you have asthma/ allergies and the risk of a stomach ulcer (if overdosed) means that even when you have it with meals there is still a serious risk. The best thing is to get the proper treatment done before the pain gets too bad.
What People Say About Our Practice
Why should you choose The Dentist Walsall? We’ve built a reputation for our friendly, highly qualified, best-value service. Our regulars love what we do because we have a passion for great dentistry. We think you’ll love what we do as well.
*Please note, as of the start of Covid 19 we no longer do a 24 hour telephone service, but we rely on online bookings for appointments instead.