Emergency Dental Care for the Unexpected
Published Dec 28 2009
You never know when an emergency could happen - even a emergency dental situation.
You could be riding along in a taxi, like Mets pitcher Tom Glavine, and the next thing you know, a SUV has slammed into you, knocking out your two front teeth and breaking some of the bones in your jaw, causing you to need emergency dental care! The Chicago Sun-Times also reports that Glavine received stitches to repair his cut lower lip.
Glavine was visiting his family on his day off and was on his way back to New York the next day, fully intending to start against the Houston Astros at the Shea Stadium in Brooklyn. He was sent to the hospital for some emergency dental work, the Sun-Times said.
According to The New York Times, Glavine now has two false front teeth, and he wears them during his games. The Times said that as soon as the Mets pulled a victory against San Francisco (Glavine's first game since his accident 15 days earlier), he finally pulled out his false teeth and celebrated with the team.
Emergency dental work is often just as important as other, more common emergency issues to take care of following a car accident. Stabilizing the jaw and checking for broken, missing or rearranged parts in the mouth is not something to save till later. Even if it seems to be a minor accident, it is still important to seek emergency dental help, because things that seem small at the time of an accident could turn into big problems later.
In a mouth with loosened teeth, infection could set in if it is left unattended. Also, larger loose spaces between the gum and the teeth leave more space for plaque to build up, consequently resulting in greater risk for tooth and gum decay. An emergency dental situation left unattended can lead to periodontal disease, severe tooth decay or the need for extensive extractions and replacements in the mouth.
Sometimes, fragments of foreign objects (like shards of broken glass from a wreck that otherwise leaves you with only a few cuts and bruises) can get lodged in or between your teeth more severely than can be conquered by merely flossing. If left too long, this can crack the tooth. It could also crack the tooth if picked at with a sharp object wielded by a nonprofessional.
Sometimes it’s very obvious that emergency dental help is needed, like when Glavine had his two front teeth knocked out and several bones in his jaw broken. However sometimes the emergency is not so obvious, when it initially seems like nothing life-threatening. Regardless, remember that serious dental problems from an accident could still arise in a mouth that was not attended to.
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