Prepare for a Dental Emergency With These Supplies!

It’s a sunny Saturday afternoon, and your kids have a few friends over. They’re out playing in the backyard, when suddenly your child rushes into the room, hand covering their obviously bleeding mouth. Panic undoubtedly sets in for a second before you find out they fell and knocked a tooth out.

That situation may have never happened to you, but it could. When situations like that strike you need to have a good dental emergency plan in place. You can be seen the same day you call at Fox Family Dentistry, but between your visit and the accident, you’re going to need to do something!

That’s where your emergency kit comes in – everyone needs to have a well-stocked first-aid kit at home, and it should contain dental supplies as well!

Dental Triage Tools

Whether it’s you or a family member who’s injured you’re going to need to figure out just what happened and how to treat it. These supplies are ideal for cleaning out the mouth, removing blood, and figuring out what exactly is going on.

• Non-latex gloves are a must. Preventing the spread of bloodborne illnesses is important, and nothing does it better than a good pair of gloves. Make sure they’re non-latex so you don’t end up with an allergic reaction on top of the injury!
• A dental mirror and penlight can really shed some light on the problem. Don’t forget to keep these in your kit. Some dental mirrors you buy at the drugstore even come with a light built-in – these are a great option.
• Cotton swabs are good at cleaning out injuries and at applying topical products to small areas of the mouth. Keep some of these handy, and be sure that you have them in a sealed container so they stay clean.
• Cotton balls can be used to clean out larger areas and cushion injuries. These need to be in a sealed container as well.
• Gauze pads are great at cleaning up the mouth, so be sure you have some individually wrapped ones handy.
• Alcohol wipes can sterilize wounds and clean away dirt. Keep a handful of individually packaged ones around.
• A bit of salt can be mixed with water to create an idea of sterilizing rinse. Salt might hurt a bit on a wound, but it’s really good at cleaning it out.

Dental Injury Treatment Tools

Okay, you have the wound identified, and hopefully, a bit stabilized. Now comes the part where you get it secured and make your patient comfortable. You don’t want another injury to occur or for the person to be in pain between now and your emergency appointment.

• Dental wax is the perfect product for covering a sharp fractured tooth, a broken orthodontic wire, or any other sharp/sensitive injury.
• The temporary filling material is specifically made to replace lost fillings. You can buy a tube of it at most drugstores, and it’s another essential item.
• Vaseline is actually the ideal substance to reattach a crown that’s fallen off. Simply fill it with vaseline and pop it back on its tooth. It should stay put until you get to us, and vaseline is much easier to clean off than some of the other materials out there.
• Cold compresses can relieve pain and help your patient feel some relief from swelling, infection, or bleeding. We recommend you keep some of the single-use ones on hand so you don’t have to go scrounging in the freezer for the right product.
• Ibuprofen is your pain reliever of choice for dental emergencies. Be sure that you don’t try using aspirin – it thins the blood and prevents clot formation.

Call Us Right Away!

Our Burke dental team is always ready to handle emergency care needs. You’ll be able to reach someone from our office 24 hours a day. If you call outside of regular business hours our answering service will put you in touch with our on-call dentist, who can then help you figure out what to do and when to come in. If there’s a serious situation that requires treatment right away we’ll gladly meet you outside of normal business hours.

Whether it’s a broken tooth, an infection, or just a toothache we want to hear from you ASAP. Give Fox Family Dentistry a call right away at 703-978-5253! For non-emergency needs, you can request an appointment online. We look forward to seeing you soon!