Dental Emergencies in Westford, MA

If you are a patient of record, rest assured that you can always reach a member of our team in the event of a dental emergency. During our regular business hours, we will give immediate attention to your situation and arrange to see you as soon as we can to provide you with the dental care you need.

After hours, call our office and follow the instructions provided. A member of our team will return your call as soon as possible. If you are experiencing a serious or life-threatening emergency, please call 911 or visit your local emergency room for treatment.

We evaluate every situation on a case-by-case basis, but generally speaking, dental emergencies are situations in which there is uncontrolled bleeding, severe pain, or a tooth needs immediate treatment to be saved. Some other situations that may or may not require urgent dental care include loose dental implants and broken restorations (crowns, dentures, or bridges). If you’re not sure if you have a dental emergency on your hands, call our office and we can determine if a same-day appointment is needed.

When a toothache is caused by an infection, it’s considered a dental emergency because this infection can easily spread to surrounding tissues, bone, and even other parts of the body. This type of toothache usually produces a constant, throbbing pain that is severe enough to interfere with eating, sleeping, and other daily activities. The affected area may feel warm to the touch and you may notice a small white bump on the gums near the tooth—this is a dental abscess.

If your crown is broken, you might consider gluing it for a quick fix, but we don’t advise this. Instead, wrap your crown in a piece of tissue to protect it from damage and cover the exposed tooth structure with a small piece of dental wax or sugarless gum. Call our office to schedule an appointment to have your crown replaced.

The first and most important thing you can do is to stay calm! In order to save a tooth that has been knocked out, it’s important to act quickly. Call our office so we can begin to make preparations for your appointment. Then, hold the tooth by the crown (never touch the root) and rinse it in water or milk to remove any dust or debris that’s stuck to it. Push the tooth back into your socket. If you don’t feel like you can do this yourself, place it in a small cup of milk or saliva and bring it to our office so we can put it back in for you. Once your tooth is back in the socket, we’ll use splints to stabilize it, which allows the gums to reattach.

If your tooth pain is unbearable, it’s a sign that there’s something serious wrong with your tooth. The only way to resolve this is to get the dental care that you need. In the meantime, you can use numbing gel, ice packs, or over-the-counter pain medication for temporary relief.