Find an Emergency Dentist
in Louisville, KY

Gone are the days where trying to find an emergency dentist in Louisville while dealing with an unbearably painful toothache are difficult. Instead of focusing on finding an emergency dentist Louisville to book an appointment with on your own, let us take care of the hard work for you. Thanks to our 24-hour emergency dentist network, we can personally refer you to an emergency dentist straight away. Instead of spending days trying to get an appointment with an emergency dentist on your own, let us get the job done. We can book an appointment for you in as little as a 24-hour time period, so don’t hesitate. Call us right now for immediate help.

What You Need to Bring to Your Louisville Emergency Dentist Appointment

After you’ve given us a call and are waiting for us to call you back to give you the details of your Louisville emergency dentist appointment, you’ll need to track down a couple of items to bring with you. This may seem like common sense, but you’ll need to have an acceptable form of personal identification ready to present to the emergency dentist and their team before your appointment can begin. A driver’s license, for example, is an acceptable piece of ID. Any recent paperwork, records, or even a receipt with the details of your appointment from a visit with your regular dentist are also items you should look for. Recent dental information will help the emergency dentist and their team have something to refer to and build your patient profile faster. After we’ve called you back to let you know when and where you need to go, you should definitely call the office of the emergency dentist. If you have dental coverage through your current insurance provider, calling ahead to see whether or not it’s accepted, or asking for a quote for your appointment if you don’t, will ensure that there are no surprises. Arriving at least 15 minutes before your emergency appointment is due to start is very important. Emergency dentist’s run just like your regular dentist does, so expect to be given paperwork to fill out. Filling out paperwork will take some time to do, hence the 15 minutes early. You’ll also want to take this time to ask any questions you may have, too! Finally, don’t be afraid to speak up about your fears or anxiety when it comes to visiting the dentist. The emergency dentists within our network, including their teams, have all dealt with a large number of patients who have a fear of the dentist, so they know how to keep you comfortable for the duration of your appointment.

Same Day Denture Repair in Louisville

If you’re trying to track down emergency denture repair in Louisville because of damaged or destroyed dentures, we can help you out with that, too! Not only can we book an appointment for you to have your dentures fixed or be fitted for a new set, we also offer same day denture repair in Louisville. Quite a few of the emergency dentists in our network work closely with denture lab technicians, which makes these services through us possible.

Common Dental Emergencies Emergency Dentists Treat

One of the best ways to be prepared for any common dental emergency is to know what they are and what you can do when one of them strikes. Most patients don’t notice they’re having a dental emergency until the pain sets in. You also need to know when you need to head straight to the emergency room instead of going to see an emergency dentist first. Knocked out or otherwise lost teeth, oral infections, severe headaches, and even badly chipped teeth are all prime examples of dental emergencies that require immediate attention. However, regardless of any other injury or emergency you may have, any sustained trauma to the head must be treated before anything else.

A Knocked Out or Lost Tooth

The first thing you need to do when you’ve had a tooth knocked out, or lost it some other way, is to assess your injuries and make sure your head trauma is only a missing tooth. Once you’re sure all else is fine, try and find the tooth. If you’ve successfully found the tooth, before you pick it up remember that it must be picked up by the crown, the top of the tooth. Picking it up by the root, the bottom of the tooth, is the best way to damage it. If the tooth is damaged to a certain extent, which can be done by picking it up by the root, the emergency dentist won’t be able to implant it back in. There are a couple of preservation methods you can use to make sure the tooth remains undamaged until we can get you to your emergency dental appointment. Start by rinsing off the tooth with some water. Next, if you’re comfortable with doing so, you can actually try to stick it back in the empty socket yourself, but don’t force it. Keeping it in a cup of milk or water will also keep it preserved, as well.

An Abscessed Tooth and Oral Infections

Dealing with an abscessed tooth is a painful, dangerous dental emergency. Oral infections are just as time-sensitive and life-threatening as an infection of the body. If they are left untreated, an oral infection will spread throughout the roots of your teeth, make its way into the tissues, and eventually enter the bloodstream, causing blood poisoning and even death. Because oral infections are extremely serious, identifying one before the severe pain and festering infection get worse is your best bet. Using a compact mirror, or a small mirror, in general, check your mouth for anything that looks like a pimple or a red bump that differs in color from your gums. Unfortunately, abscessed teeth and oral infections are easily formed. For example, fracturing and chipping a tooth where your toothbrush can’t reach makes the perfect breeding ground for an oral infection.

Lost Crown or Filling

If you’ve lost a crown or a filling that was in charge of covering a hole in a tooth you must act fast, especially if it was covering a deep one. Leaving the tooth exposed and without protection will cause a lot of damage, potentially to the point where the emergency dentist will have to extract it instead of recapping or refilling it. The best way to protect the tooth and cover the hole temporarily is to pick up dental cement. That, or you can use small pieces of gauze or some cotton balls. Regardless of the method you use, make sure the hole is covered and the tooth is protected at all times.

An Emergency Tooth Extraction

Before we get into how an emergency tooth extraction is done, it’s important for you to know that not all dental emergencies lead to an extraction. More often than you’d think, patients who go in for a booked emergency tooth extraction actually get to keep the tooth. This is because the emergency dentists in our network, along with their teams, first try everything they can think of to avoid having to extract the tooth. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case, but the procedure goes a lot more smoothly for patients when they know what to expect before they go in for an emergency extraction. The emergency dentist will numb the entire extraction area to ensure that you feel no pain. Once the area is completely numb, an incision will be made in the tissue surrounding the tooth. The emergency dentist will then use dental pliers to gently move the tooth around until it comes out. If the tooth proves difficult to remove, the emergency dentist will carefully break it up into smaller pieces, removing each fragment. The emergency dentist will then go over aftercare instructions with you, all of which you will need to keep up with at home. Properly following the instructions given will ensure that the amount of time it takes for the extraction site to heal is as minimal as possible and so infection can be avoided.

The Emergency Room vs a Louisville Emergency Dentist

There are more than a few instances where both a trip to the emergency room and having us book an appointment with a Louisville emergency dentist for you are possible, such as a car accident or a bad fall down the stairs, for example. However, knowing which type of help you need first is extremely important. Emergency room doctors are able to manage your pain, treat your bodily injuries, and, most importantly, treat any sustained trauma to the head. Emergency dentists in Louisville are able to manage your pain to a certain extent, treat your oral injuries, and save your teeth. Because an emergency room doctor is equipped to treat head trauma, while emergency dentists are not, you need to go to your local ER first. Whether you call us while you’re at the ER or when you return home to book an appointment through us is totally up to you.