Emergency Dentistry – Topeka, KS

How We Treat Dental Emergencies

• Schedule an Emergency Appointment: Call our office right away to let us know what happened and what your symptoms are. After providing first aid tips, we’ll set up an appointment for you as soon as possible.
• Comprehensive Exam: During your initial emergency appointment, we can treat your immediate pain and examine your mouth thoroughly to narrow down the true nature of your problem. We’ll need to figure out what’s causing your emergency and how severe it is.
• Review Findings: After our examination, we’ll tell you what we’ve found and what it means for your oral health. We’ll then explain what kind of treatment is available, how much it will likely cost, and how much time it will take; you won’t be asked to make a decision until you have all the necessary information.
• Give Your Smile the Care It Needs: Once a form of treatment has been agreed upon, all that’s left is for our team to do everything they can to get you out of your pain for good.

The Most Common Dental Emergencies

Below are some of the most common reasons why patients call our office for emergency care. Some dental issues are more urgent than others, but in general, it is best to schedule an appointment as soon as you can before the issue can grow any worse. Our practice is more than happy to advise you on the next steps you should take for any of these situations.

Understanding the Cost of Dental Emergencies

We won’t be able to give you an estimate of how much emergency care will cost when you first call our office; we can only make a reliable estimate once we’ve seen the damage for ourselves and have determined the best course of action. Rest assured that you will be given an idea of how much the procedures we recommend will cost. We’ll also help maximize your insurance benefits so that you can save as much on your care as possible.

Keys to Preventing Dental Emergencies

Many dental emergencies can be avoided altogether if you’re mindful of the way you’re taking care of your teeth. For instance, by brushing and flossing regularly while also attending biannual checkups, you can make it less likely that your teeth will suffer from decay and infection. Also, you can reduce the risk of fracturing your teeth if you break bad oral habits like chewing fingernails or crunching ice. If you play any sort of contact sport, make sure that you always wear a mouthguard.

Root Canal Therapy

When you have a toothache, we can take X-rays to see if the pulp has become infected. If so, we’ll need to remove it altogether to stop your pain and prevent the damage from spreading any further than it already has. This procedure is known as root canal therapy. The area around the tooth is injected with a local anesthetic before the treatment actually begins, so you won’t experience any discomfort during the procedure itself.

Tooth Extractions

It’s not always possible to save a tooth. In cases where the damage is so severe that restoration can’t be used or the neighboring teeth are at risk, an extraction might be required. We’ll explain every step of the process to you as well as why it’s necessary, and we’ll take whatever steps are required to keep you safe and comfortable during the procedure. We can also recommend restorations that can be used to replace your removed teeth.

Wisdom Tooth Extractions

Most people have a third set of molars known as wisdom teeth, which come in around the ages of 17 to 25. At that point, all of the other teeth have already erupted, so there’s likely not enough room in the mouth to accommodate the wisdom teeth. If they become impacted, cause pain, or increase the risk of infection, they should be removed as soon as possible. We can examine your wisdom teeth to see if they need to be removed to protect your oral health.