Dental emergencies: what to do before you reach a clinic

Worth reading before you need it. Save the clinic's number in your phone now — that is genuinely the most useful thing on this page.

A knocked-out adult tooth

This is the one true dental emergency where minutes matter.

• Pick the tooth up by the crown, never the root.
• If it is dirty, rinse briefly in milk or saline. Do not scrub it, do not use soap, do not wrap it in tissue — the cells on the root surface are what allow it to reattach.
• Put it back in the socket if you possibly can, the right way round, and bite gently on a clean cloth to hold it there.
• If you cannot, keep it in milk, or in the patient's own saliva inside the cheek if they are old enough not to swallow it. Never in water.
• Get to a dentist immediately. Within thirty minutes is good; after an hour the outlook drops sharply.

A knocked-out milk tooth is different — do not put it back, as that can damage the permanent tooth developing above it. Still have it looked at.

A broken or chipped tooth

Save any fragment in milk — it can sometimes be bonded back. Rinse with warm water, use a cold compress for swelling, avoid chewing on that side. If a sharp edge is cutting your tongue, covering it with sugar-free chewing gum until you are seen is a legitimate temporary measure.

Facial swelling

This is the one people underestimate. Swelling means infection that is no longer contained in the tooth.

Be seen the same day if there is swelling. Go to a hospital immediately, not a dental clinic, if there is swelling closing the eye, swelling under the jaw or into the neck, difficulty swallowing or breathing, difficulty opening the mouth, or fever with confusion. Dental infection spreading into the neck is uncommon and genuinely dangerous.

Do not apply heat to a swollen face. It encourages spread.

A lost filling or crown

Not usually urgent, but do not leave it for months — the tooth underneath is unprotected and decays quickly. Keep the crown if you have it; it can often be re-cemented. Temporary filling material from a pharmacy is fine for a few days. Never use household adhesive.

Bleeding that will not stop after an extraction

Bite firmly on rolled gauze or a clean cloth for twenty full minutes without checking every two — checking is what restarts it. Sit upright, do not rinse, do not spit. If heavy bleeding continues past an hour of proper pressure, call the clinic.

What counts as urgent, summarised

• Immediately: knocked-out adult tooth; swelling with difficulty breathing or swallowing
• Same day: facial swelling; uncontrolled bleeding; severe pain not responding to normal pain relief; facial trauma
• Within a few days: broken tooth without pain; lost crown or filling; a wisdom tooth flare-up settling with rinses

Outside clinic hours, call the clinic number first — the message will tell you how to reach us. If facial swelling is spreading towards the eye or the floor of the mouth, or you are struggling to swallow or breathe, do not wait for a dentist: go to a hospital emergency department now.

General information only. It is not a substitute for an examination — book an appointment for advice about your own teeth.