Be Dentally Prepared for the Holidays

The holiday season is fast approaching, and every year at this time I am reminded of all the possibilities of dental emergencies. Many times on Thanksgiving or Christmas I have been called by a patient and seen them in my office in Darien to treat a toothache, broken tooth, or abcess. So I thought this would be a good opportunity to provide information on ways to avoid dental problems, and what to do if indeed you are faced with an emergency.

The first thing right now is to schedule a dental check up and see if you have any dental needs that should be taken care of before the holidays. Do not put off treatment until it hurts. My usual advice is to take care of your dental issue at your convenience, not the tooth's convenience! In our office, we schedule an exam, x-rays and cleaning all at the same visit. If there are no hygiene visits available, ask for an exam and x-rays only which most likely can be done sooner, so if you need any work done, that can be determined as soon as possible.

If you need several teeth treated, have the most urgent or largest problems treated first. These will be the most likely to cause a toothache or break. Which brings us to what happens if you have a true emergency. During office hours, we always make every attempt to see an emergency on the same day you call. After hours, if you have an emergency, we have two different ways to take care of you. If I am out of town, I routinely have a trusted colleague take my emergency patients and their phone number would be on our voice mail after hours for you to call. If I am in town, there is an emergency number for you to call and reach me directly.

What constitutes  a true dental emergency? Are you in uncontrollable pain? Have you tried taking an over the counter pain medication and it does not work? Do you have facial swelling? Do you have uncontrollable bleeding? Did you experience trauma to the face or jaw? These are true dental emergencies. It is interesting that during the holidays there are many more emergency calls. After years of taking these calls, I can say this is due to a few reasons. People do put off their dental treatment because they are too busy during the holiday season, so that tooth that breaks really needed a filling months ago. People also are not as careful about what they are eating. There is a lot of hard crusty bread, hard sticky sweet nougat, toffee, and nuts that get consumed, along with hot soups and pizza that cause painful burns too. Many patients tell me while they are around the dinner table everything is fine but the trouble happens when they are in the kitchen cleaning up and they eat that end of the crusty bread, or pick up the turkey leg and bite into the bone when the trouble happens. The other category of dental emergencies is trauma or broken teeth that occur when one too many drinks are enjoyed and someone falls. All true situations I have dealt with on a holiday.

So to enjoy your holidays, be sure to come in early and get your check up. Be careful with what you eat and drink. And if you do find yourself in that dental emergency, know that we have you covered. Happy Holidays!! Visit our website to learn more.