Category: Dental Emergency

How to Be Prepared for a Dental Emergency

Posted May 25, 2023 by Paris Mountain Dental

Dental emergencies can happen when you least expect them. A dental emergency could involve a variety of issues, such as accidentally chipping or breaking a tooth, losing a filling or dental crown, breaking your dentures, experiencing sudden tooth pain, or getting a permanent tooth knocked out. Being prepared for a dental emergency can help you remain calm and resolve the problem as quickly as possible. Follow these tips so you’ll know what to do the next time you require urgent dental care.

Stock an At-Home Emergency Kit

Have a kit of dental emergency supplies in your home in case you experience an oral injury. Helpful items include gauze, disposable gloves, and over-the-counter pain medication, as well as a small container with a lid in which you can keep a knocked-out tooth safe and clean. Additionally, keep an ice pack or cold compress in the freezer to use if you’re experiencing swelling of the mouth or jaw.

Keep Your Dentist’s Contact Information Handy

You’ll want to call your dentist at the first sign of an emergency. Time is of the essence during an emergency, especially if you knock out a permanent tooth. Be sure you have your dentist’s phone number saved in your phone contacts or posted on your refrigerator.

At Paris Mountain Dental, we understand that dental emergencies can be painful and alarming. Our team will be able to assess your situation and provide guidance over the phone until you can get to our office for a proper exam. We make every effort to get you in for treatment as soon as possible by leaving room in our schedule to accommodate same-day emergency appointments.

We hope you choose our Travelers Rest office as your oral healthcare provider for both general dental care and emergency care. Please contact us today with any questions or to schedule an appointment!

How Do I Know If I Need a Root Canal?

Posted August 26, 2022 by Paris Mountain Dental

A tooth infection can start as increased sensitivity, followed by a slight toothache, then bad breath and throbbing tooth pain. At this point, you may have developed an abscess, which is a pus-filled sac at the root of your tooth. Root canal therapy is necessary to treat a tooth infection.

Infections typically stem from trauma that causes a crack or break in your tooth or an untreated severe cavity. The pain can spread throughout your jawbone, and you can experience a bad smell and taste around the tooth, as well as swelling and a fever.

Root Canal Procedure

Root canal therapy is nearly painless procedure, despite its bad reputation. Before the procedure, your dentist will make sure you are properly anesthetized and feel comfortable. They will then drill a small hole into your tooth to access the innermost areas of your tooth, the pulp and root. This allows them to remove the infected tissue, clean out your tooth, and fill it with a special substance called gutta-percha. Your tooth will be sealed and covered with a crown to reinforce it when you chew. This procedure will have eliminated the source of your pain to protect your oral tissues from damage, while saving the outer structure and roots of your natural tooth.

How to Avoid Root Canal Therapy

There are several steps you can take to protect your teeth from infection and the need for root canal therapy. Brush your teeth twice a day for two minutes each time, floss your teeth every day, visit Paris Mountain Dental twice a year, consume a balanced diet, stay hydrated with water, wear a mouthguard if you play sports, wear a nightguard if you grind and clench your teeth, and avoid tobacco products.

Affordable Root Canal Therapy in Travelers Rest, SC

Paris Mountain Dental offers comprehensive dentistry, including preventive, restorative, and emergency dental care to help you prevent and treat tooth infections. We also offer flexible financing to make our personalized treatments affordable.

Are you experiencing tooth pain? Please contact us today to schedule an emergency appointment.

What To Do After a Sports-Related Dental Injury

Posted November 12, 2021 by Paris Mountain Dental

Cartoon of a child getting hit in the face with a soccer ball and showing a chipped tooth.

Image by Authority Dental under CC 2.0

Sports Related Emergencies

Sports injuries happen so fast, and it can be difficult to determine the next best steps to take. If you or your child have serious, non-dental related injuries that need to be taken care of first, it’s better to visit an emergency room before coming to our office. However, if the emergency is mostly tooth, gum, or mouth-related, visiting Paris Mountain Dental Care for emergency dental care should be the top priority. Please call our office as soon as you can so we can clear our schedule and prepare for your arrival.

Knocked-Out Permanent Tooth

One of the most common sports-related dental injuries is knocking out one or more adult teeth. When this happens, it’s important not to panic, but still get to your nearest emergency dentist as soon as possible. Locate the tooth and pick it up by the crown. If it has broken into pieces, gather them together if possible. We may be able to repair the tooth and reattach it. Rinse the tooth off, and place it back in the socket if it’s not too painful. Gently bite down on a clean piece of cloth to hold the tooth in place. If the tooth cannot be reinserted, put it into a cup of milk or saliva. This will help keep it alive while you are in the process of getting to our office.

Cracked Tooth

If one or more teeth were not knocked out but were still cracked, broken, or otherwise damaged, we will want to see you for an emergency dental appointment right away. If your gums are bleeding profusely, hold a piece of gauze or cloth over the area and resist the urge to check if the bleeding has stopped for at least 15 minutes. Ibuprofen is a good over-the-counter pain medication to take if there is a lot of swelling. However, Tylenol is a better choice if there is any dental bleeding, since it is not a blood thinner.

Preventing Sports-Related Dental Injuries in Travelers Rest

At Paris Mountain Dental, we always prefer to help our patients avoid needing restorative dental care in the first place. That’s why we recommend that patients who are involved in aggressive contact sports have custom athletic mouthguards created for them. Custom mouthguards are comfortable to wear, even during long practices and games. They are also very durable and can be used to protect a patient’s smile for many years before they need to be replaced. Getting a sports mouthguard can be a great investment for patients who want to protect their beautiful smiles and avoid emergency dental treatments.

Restorative Treatments at Paris Mountain Dental

Once a dental injury has occurred, restorative dental work will likely be necessary. We hope that doesn’t happen, but if you have a dental injury you can count on our team to help you find the best restorative treatment to get your smile back to a healthy state. Contact us today to schedule an athletic mouthguard or consult about our other comprehensive dental services.

Sports mouthguards can prevent serious dental sports injuries!

Open for Emergencies During COVID-19

Posted April 15, 2020 by Paris Mountain Dental

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19, our Travelers Rest, SC dental office is operating under limited hours for emergencies only. The safety and health of our patients, our employees, and our community are our top priorities. We will let you know when we are once again able to provide our patients with the quality care and the safe environment that is a hallmark of our practice.

Paris Mountain Dental adheres to the strict safety standards recommended by the American Dental Association (ADA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). We have always been extremely mindful of our patients’ health and safety and will be even more vigilant in the future. Rest assured when we do welcome you back that our office and equipment will be thoroughly disinfected.

Protect Yourself & Your Loved Ones

We encourage all of our patients to protect themselves and their families by following the recommendations from the CDC. For example:

Practice social distancing. Stay home as much as possible.
When it is necessary to go out, keep at least six feet away from others.
Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
Always wash your hands after using the bathroom and before eating.
Don’t touch your eyes, nose, or mouth unless you have just washed your hands.
Cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue and then dispose of it.
Disinfect objects and surfaces that are frequently touched.
Do not share dishes or utensils.
Get adequate rest and eat a healthy diet.
Take extra precautions if you are sick to reduce the spread of the disease.
Even if you feel healthy, be mindful of the health of others. Some people are asymptomatic when they have the disease and can unknowingly spread it to others.

Keep Brushing & Flossing!

We recognize that many of you are experiencing unprecedented upheavals and challenges in your daily lives and routines. Please take good care of your mental health as well as your physical health and your oral health. We encourage everyone to take some time for positive, uplifting activities to help relieve stress.

Paris Mountain Dental thanks you for your loyal patronage and regrets the inconvenience our temporary closure will cause to those with scheduled appointments and plans for smile improvements. Our team looks forward to welcoming you again to our office as soon as this crisis has passed.

Emergency Dentist in Travelers Rest

If you experience a dental emergency we are here to help! Give us a call at (864)610-6188 and we’ll get you in as soon as possible.

Stay safe during the COVID-19 crisis!

5 Common Foods That Can Crack Teeth

Posted August 16, 2019 by Paris Mountain Dental

There you are, just sitting and enjoying your snack or meal, when all of a sudden you hear a crack and your tooth doesn’t feel so good. We sincerely hope this never happens to you, but it is possible for people to crack their teeth while eating some everyday foods. Here are five of the most common foods that lead to cracked teeth:

1. Hard Candy

There’s no shortage of candies out there and lots of them fall into the hard candy category. Lollipops, jawbreakers, and Jolly Ranchers are just a couple, and we bet you can think of a few more too. When you indulge in one of these sweets, resist the temptation to chew and bite them since they can take a serious toll on your teeth.

2. Popcorn

We’re not talking about savory, buttery, fluffy popcorn. We’re talking about those tiny, hard unpopped kernels. Next time you grab a handful of popcorn, make sure you’re not accidentally about to bite down on one of those little guys because they are hard on your teeth.

Bowl of popcorn next to pile of unpopped kernels

Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay

3. Shelled Nuts & Seeds

While your teeth are designed to help you break down the food you eat, you shouldn’t be using them as a tool to open things—even if those things are healthy nuts and seeds. The hard outer shell of pistachios, sunflower seeds, and the like could hurt the outer surface of your teeth.

4. Olives

It’s tempting to dig into a bowl of olives and pop one after another in your mouth. Instead, slow down a bit so that you don’t unintentionally chomp down into their hard pits and crack a tooth. That’s a surprise you don’t want!

5. Ice

Plenty of people enjoy chewing on ice to cool down, or simply because there’s some in their cold drink. But chunky ice is no friend to your teeth, so avoid biting down on it and just suck on the cubes instead.

If you want more advice about which foods are good for your teeth and which you should be wary of, contact us at Paris Mountain Dental. We’d love to hear from you.

What Should I Do in a Dental Emergency?

Posted April 24, 2018 by Paris Mountain Dental

For many of us, dental emergencies are the last thing on our minds. However, in the event that the unthinkable happens, you should be prepared. At Paris Mountain Dental, we know that having a plan in the event of a dental emergency can help you limit the damage and get the treatment you need as soon as possible. We’ve put together the following list of three common dental emergencies and what to do to help prepare you and your family.

3 Common Dental Emergencies

1. Toothache

If you experience a toothache, rinse your mouth with warm water to clean it. If you notice any food particles between teeth that are causing irritation, gently use floss to remove them.

2. Knocked-Out Tooth

If you have a tooth knocked out, try to keep it moist and visit our office as soon as possible! If it is dirty, rinse it with milk or water, but don’t rub or wipe it. If possible, carefully place the tooth back in the socket without touching the root, or keep the tooth in a glass of milk. In a pinch, you can even place it in between your cheek and gums until you can visit us.

3. Cracked Tooth

If you realize that you’ve chipped or cracked a tooth, try rinsing your mouth with warm water. This will clean your mouth and help protect against infection. If you are experiencing swelling, use a cold compress. Even if a cracked tooth isn’t incredibly painful, the fissure may worsen and lead to further issues, so visit us as soon as possible.

Remember Your Preventive Care

In order to avoid a dental emergency like the ones listed above, make sure you’re practicing good preventive care habits. This includes brushing twice daily, flossing each day, attending biannual dental exams, and protecting your mouth. Wear a mouthguard if you’re participating in contact sports and avoid chewing hard foods like ice and hard candy, which can crack a tooth.

Contact Us ASAP!

No matter what your emergency is, give us a call as soon as you notice signs of trouble. We will work to fit you in to see Dr. Ghimire. If you have any questions for our team about what to do in a dental emergency or you want to schedule your next appointment, call our office today.