Dealing with Dental Emergencies on Vacation

What’s better than a week at the beach? Or perhaps you and your family enjoy a nice mountain getaway in the winter? Whatever your favorite vacation destination may be, it’s always nice to have some time off to enjoy the things you love, with the people you love the most. Vacations are meant to be a planned and stress free moment in life. So what are you to do when an unplanned dental emergency occurs during relaxation time? Read the tips below to turn a dental disaster into a manageable situation.

Toothache

Imagine waking up on your first day of summer vacation to find that you’re experiencing a lot of pain from a troublesome tooth. What are you supposed to do? The pain is too distracting to just ignore it. Luckily, toothaches are quite common, and they aren’t always caused by cavities. Your first step is to try and rinse your mouth with warm water. This will help soothe the pain if it is something less than a cavity. It’s also important to look for any swelling. If swelling does occur, hold a cold compress to the outside of the mouth or cheek. However, you should never put aspirin against the gums or on the sore tooth, because it may burn the gum tissue. You can also gently floss or brush near the troublesome tooth. Sometimes food debris can get caught between the teeth and cause pain.

Broken Tooth

Maybe you caught too big of a wave or an accident occurred during beach volleyball, and now you’re missing part of your tooth. Fortunately, if you act quickly, the damage does not have to be permanent. First, you’ll need to save any broken pieces. If preserved properly, they can be attached back to the original tooth. You can keep it in your mouth, as the saliva will preserve it. Milk is also a useful substance. Second, rinse your mouth out with warm water and salt, as well as the broken pieces. This will help sterilize everything by creating a higher PH balance inside your mouth, making it difficult for bacteria to survive. You’ll also need to stop any bleeding that’s going on. Use some gauze and apply pressure to the bleeding area. Make sure you’re applying a cold icepack to reduce swelling, too.

Avulsed Tooth

If you happen to lose an entire tooth, the process isn’t all that different. Again, if you can properly preserve the missing tooth and receive dental treatment fast enough, any damage will not result in permanent damage. To save the tooth, you’ll want to keep it in milk to preserve it. If you don’t have any milk nearby, and the tooth isn’t that dirty, you can try and put it back into the socket. However, it’s important NOT to touch the roots of the tooth because germs from your hand can infect it. Hold the tooth by the crown and rinse off the root of the tooth in water if it’s dirty. Do not scrub it or remove any attached tissue fragments. To ensure the highest survival rate, the tooth should be implanted by a dentist within one hour.

Lost Dental Filling

A lost dental filling can be quite painful. Obviously the best solution is to have it quickly implanted by your dentist. However, when on vacation that is not always an option. If you are looking for a quick fix, it’s often suggested that sugarless gum can serve as a substitute filling. It’s clearly not a permanent solution, but you can used it to plug the whole from your filling until you can get in to see your dentist. Never use sugared gum, however. This can cause pain and possible dental decay.

Preventative Care is the Best Care

Mitigating any chances of preventable dental emergencies is the best way to ensure your vacation goes smoothly and safely. Make sure, before you leave, that everyone in the family has seen their dentist. It’s also best to mention any problem areas or possible issues to him or her that way they can provide specialty treatment.

Most importantly, for the emergencies that you can’t prevent, gather all of your information. Get together your dentist’s information, including his or her email, and your dental insurance policy number. You can even create an emergency dentist contact entry on your cell phone, so it’s all right there if you need to visit a different dentist in a different state. We assure you that you’ll definitely appreciate having this information handy if you do encounter a dental emergency on vacation.