Night Dental Emergencies in Families With Children
What reduces panic at night is knowing what to do before anything happens.
What makes a child's emergency different
In children the enamel and dentine are thin and the pulp is relatively large, so decay or a fracture reaches the nerve faster than it would in an adult. A complaint that looked minor in the morning can be throbbing by the evening.
The second difference is communication: a young child cannot describe where or how it hurts, so it shows as restlessness, not eating and not sleeping — which makes examination and radiographs more decisive. The third is that a permanent tooth is developing beneath the baby tooth, so an infection there concerns the successor as well.
Worth keeping ready at home
- Save the clinic's number so there is no searching at night
- Sterile gauze, to bite on and apply pressure to bleeding
- A small lidded container for a fragment or a knocked-out tooth
- Milk — never let a knocked-out tooth dry; carry it in milk
- An ice pack and a thin cloth for cold compresses
- A written list of the child's medicines and any allergies
- A torch — looking inside the mouth is hard in dim light
Baby tooth or permanent tooth — why it matters
With a tooth knocked completely out, what to do depends on its type. For a permanent tooth time is critical: hold it by the crown, never scrub the root, carry it in milk and come without delay. A baby tooth is not replanted, as that can harm the developing permanent tooth beneath — but the child still needs to be seen.
For decay or a fracture, being a baby tooth does not make treatment unnecessary. Baby teeth hold chewing, speech and the space for the permanent teeth; if lost early, neighbouring teeth drift into the gap. Fillings, root canal treatment and space maintainers are all used in baby teeth.
Before You Arrive from Yesilbahce: What to Do in the First Hour
What you can do before setting out from Yesilbahce does not replace treatment, but it keeps the situation from worsening and buys you time.
Before leaving Yesilbahce
What you should do before setting out from Yesilbahce depends on your complaint, and detailed first-aid steps for each are on the relevant page. On the way from Emergency in Yesilbahce, using the wrong measure can make things worse, so it matters which page you read — applying heat to swelling spreads the infection, and placing a painkiller tablet on the tooth burns the gum.
- Toothache
- Dental abscess and facial swelling
- A broken or cracked tooth
- A knocked-out tooth
- Bleeding after an extraction
What calling achieves for Yesilbahce
Calling as you set out from Yesilbahce does two things: you receive first-aid guidance suited to your situation, and the radiograph and surgery are prepared while you travel. For Emergency in Yesilbahce: for patients coming from across Muratpasa, this arrangement noticeably shortens the wait.
What an Emergency Visit Covers for a Patient from Yesilbahce
For a patient attending as an emergency from Yesilbahce, the aim is to stop the pain and the infection; definitive work is left to a planned appointment.
Completed the same night for Yesilbahce
Examination and a radiograph, opening the canal to release pressure, draining an abscess, stopping bleeding, temporarily sealing a broken tooth, splinting a loose tooth and adjusting a poking orthodontic wire are all completed the same night for a patient from Yesilbahce as well.
Left to a later visit for Yesilbahce
For a patient from Emergency in Yesilbahce, completing the root filling, making a crown or onlay, the permanent restoration and the implant and prosthetic stages are done at planned appointments. If you are coming from Yesilbahce, these are combined according to your journey and given to you in writing, so you do not have to travel from Muratpasa repeatedly.
