Emergencies can be stressful at best and scary at their worst. And when it comes to dental emergencies, we’ve noticed many patients struggle with a sudden dip in their confidence in their smiles.
At McCullough Dental, our entire team is trained to help patients through this sometimes difficult time. We are friendly, compassionate people who care about the people we treat and want to help them get back on their feet.
Dr. McCullough has spent years perfecting his skills in making his emergency care inspire enduring confidence in his patients. He can help you restore your smile in more ways than one.
If you’re experiencing a dental emergency, please call us immediately. We prioritize emergency appointments for current patients, and emergencies for brand new patient are accommodated as best as possible depending on the current schedule. You shouldn’t have to wait long for an urgent appointment; we’ll do everything we can to help you get the care you need when you need it.
Is This an Emergency?
Dental emergencies aren’t things you plan for. They throw a wrench in your schedule and can often cause pain, discomfort, or a change in your daily routine. A dental emergency can take many forms:
- Pain: This includes tooth pain, jaw pain, or gum pain. If you experience persistent or extreme pain in any of these areas, it’s a good idea to set an appointment with us.
- Bleeding: If your gums are bleeding excessively, that is definitely something to be alarmed about.
- Broken Tooth: Whether it’s cracked or a piece has fallen off of your tooth, it can cause sensitivity to hot and cold and makes you liable for infection
- Missing Tooth: Teeth can be knocked out quite easily while playing sports. This is an emergency, and you should call us immediately.
As a rule of thumb, if the thought to call the dentist has crossed your mind, you should just give us a call. We love to hear from our patients at any time, and we’re happy to set up an appointment if that’s what you need or give you advice on how to take care of your injuries at home.
Why We Offer Emergency Dentistry
At McCullough Dental, we want to instill enduring confidence in our patients. Our emergency dentistry services can take a load off your shoulders, fix your injuries, and let you leave our office with confidence that your smile will last. With emergency dentistry, we can offer solutions to the following:
- Pain: Toothaches, jaw pain, and sore gums can all be symptoms of underlying conditions that are detrimental to your oral health. When you come see us, we will be able to identify what the root problem is and provide a solution.
- While you wait for your appointment, try minimizing the pain with a cold compress, Tylenol, and chewing only soft foods.
- Bleeding: We can put a stop to most bleeding mouth injuries. These usually seem scarier than they really are. On some rare occasions, we may recommend that you go to the emergency room instead.
- You can use a cotton ball to try and stem the blood flow, as well as hold ice up to the affected area if we can’t get you in immediately.
- Broken Tooth: Broken or cracked teeth are an easy fix. We can use dental bonding or dental veneers, depending on the situation, to build up the surface of your tooth and return it to its original shape.
- If a piece of your tooth has broken off, try and save the broken piece. You can keep it safe in a glass of milk so that it stays strong until you make it to the office.
- Missing Tooth: Don’t panic if a permanent tooth falls out. If we can’t replace it in the socket, we do offer several fantastic tooth-replacement options including dental implants and dental bridges.
- After you’ve stemmed any bleeding, you can place your lost tooth back in the socket, but don’t force it. If it won’t stay, keep it in milk until your appointment.
- Mouth Sores: Canker sores or mouth sores are no fun. They make eating difficult and painful. Usually, they go away within a couple weeks, but not always. If you have sores that persist, we want to help.
- You can try hydrogen peroxide to treat the sores (but don’t swallow it!) If that is too painful, stop the rinse and stick to a normal mouthwash until your appointment.
In all cases, call us first, so we can sign you up for our next available appointment and so we can give you specific instructions for your situation. We’re here for you, especially in stressful times.
McCullough Dental Offers Solutions That Endure
Dr. Brandon McCullough has a great love for the art of restoring beautiful smiles, whether those be injured smiles or smiles that just need a little boost in confidence. Our team is dedicated to making time for each patient, especially those of you going through a hard time. No one should suffer from a dental emergency. We can help!
Our advanced technology including imaging devices, 3D printers, and surgical guides help us turn your dental emergency into a dental success. Come enjoy personal, caring dental service in Bakersfield at our comfortable and homey dental office.
We’re ready to help when everything falls apart. Just give us a call to set an appointment today!
Why Patients Love Us
I had to get an emergency done on my tooth and called the Doctor on Sunday and he set me up first thing up on Monday morning. The staff is always fantastic, so nice, and helpful. This Dental office is fantastic! Thank you!
– Travis S.
What Is Emergency Dentistry Used For?
At McCullough Dental, we endow our patients with enduring confidence with our emergency dentistry. Our urgent care procedures give our patients the healing they need to move on with their life, feeling reassured about their oral health.
Knocked-Out Tooth
A knocked-out tooth is nothing to be worried about, but in most cases, it should be treated soon to avoid the gums healing over. There are several ways you could lose a tooth:
- A blow to the face | If you get hit in the face and your tooth falls out, it can be fixed! Depending on the amount of damage, we may have several solution options for you.
- Gum disease | To treat a tooth lost from gum disease, we will first need to treat the gum disease. Once that’s taken care of, we will be happy to provide you with a dental implant.
- A new tooth growing in | For our younger patients out there, losing a baby tooth isn’t anything to worry about. You don’t need to visit us, just suck on some ice cubes and wait for your new tooth to grow in!
Chipped, Cracked, or Broken Teeth
We have lots of fantastic restorative options for teeth that are broken, chipped, or cracked. These options include:
- Veneers: Thin tooth-colored sheets that we can place over the surface of the injured tooth to protect and beautify the outer service.
- Prepless Veneers: These are just like veneers only faster, temporary, and they don’t require any preparation of the teeth, unlike regular veneers.
- Crowns: If the damage of your tooth is such that the very structure is fragile, we may decide to use a dental crown to cap over your tooth and protect it from further damage.
Loose Fillings
Your teeth are slowly changing as you wear away at them with chewing. Fillings can come loose as cavities or cracks widen as your teeth change. This can cause any previous fillings you’ve had to come loose or even fall off.
If this happens, it’s nothing to be too concerned about, but you should visit us when you have the chance. We’ll be able to fill the cavity again and help prevent a tooth infection.
Broken Crowns
Dental crowns are amazing inventions that look just like teeth and are incredibly durable, however, they are not as good as the real thing. They can break or fall off, which leaves a wounded tooth or exposed implant in their place.
At McCullough Dental, we use CEREC 3D printing to create new dental crowns for patients whose crowns have been damaged. With CEREC, you can get your brand new crown the same day you visit us for your emergency dentistry appointment!
Broken Clear Braces Aligners
At McCullough Dental, we offer several types of clear braces to give straight and aligned smiles to our patients. Sometimes patients come to us with an aligner that has been broken or cracked.
Broken aligners ought to be brought to us because they won’t do as good a job straightening your teeth as they’re meant to. We keep detailed digital records of all our patients’ orthodontic treatment plans, which makes it simple for us to request exactly the right aligner to replace your broken one with.
Toothache
Please don’t wait to call if you have a toothache. Especially if it is persistent or extremely painful. Toothaches can be signs of:
- Tooth infection.
- Temporomandibular disorders (TMD)
- Bruxism (tooth grinding).
- Cavities.
- Sinus Infection.
We can provide an accurate diagnosis and treatment for most causes of severe toothaches. If we can’t treat your case, we’ll be able to refer you to a trusted dental associate who is more than capable.
Mouth Sores
Most mouth sores naturally fade within two weeks. If a sore lasts longer than that, it is cause for concern. When you visit us, we’ll check for signs of:
- Infection.
- Certain diseases.
- Cancer.
- Other signs of irritation.
Root Canals
A root canal is the restorative treatment performed on a tooth with infected pulp (the soft area in the center of the tooth, below the crown and above the roots). The nerve of a tooth extends down the legs of the teeth—the pointed ends that are at the opposite end of the tooth. Once the infection in the pulp of your tooth has gotten severe enough, a root canal specialist can take steps to fix it.
In the root canal process, all the infected material in your tooth will be carefully removed and cleaned completely out. The inside of your tooth will be carefully shaped to take on a filling that will then be sealed from the outside, preventing any infection from ever getting into that tooth again. Once the root canal procedure is complete, your tooth will continue to function just as it always has.
Common Dental Emergency Questions
Emergencies can be nerve-wracking and stressful. They generate a lot of panicked questions, so we’ve answered a few general ones for you below. If you don’t see the answer to your question below, we’re happy to chat with you over the phone!
Should I Go to the Emergency Room?
In most cases with a mouth emergency, you should come to McCullough Dental for treatment. However, there are cases where you should go to an emergency room immediately such as:
- Excessive Bleeding: A certain amount of bleeding is to be expected with certain types of injuries, but if the blood flow is uncontrollable, that’s when you need an emergency room first. We can take care of any dental treatment once we know you’re okay.
- Broken Bones: If your jaw is hanging at a funny angle, or if you can’t move it, it’s a good idea to go to the emergency room. They are equipped to handle such injuries. Dr. McCullough will be able to help later, once you’re on the mend.
- Severe Pain: We encourage you to give us a call to see if we have an open appointment before you go to the emergency room for pain relief, but we don’t want you to suffer longer than is needed. Get the relief you need from the ER, then come see us for diagnosis.
How Do I Alleviate Tooth Pain?
There are many at-home temporary treatments you can use to alleviate tooth pain while you wait for an appointment with McCullough Dental.
- Use a cold compress to soothe pain and swelling.
- Take ibuprofen or Tylenol every six hours or so.
- If your tooth pain is making it hard for you to function, go to an emergency room.
Do You Offer Same-Day Appointments?
We do offer same-day appointments, assuming there is one available. We try to get all our patients in at the earliest convenience, so there may be a conflict of interests between patients, but we’ll make our best effort to rearrange our schedule to help get you feeling better faster.
How Much Does Emergency Dentistry Cost?
Every patient’s treatment will be different, so cost is determined on an individual basis. However, with our membership plan, you can get 20% off an emergency exam appointment as well as most major procedures. Find out more!
Get Emergency Help Now!
You and your needs are important to us. If you’re struggling with tooth pain, mouth sores, or a missing tooth, we want to know about it. McCullough Dental employs an amazing team of hygienists, assistants, and receptionists led by Dr. Brandon McCullough.
We use our experience, education, and advanced technology to provide our patients with compassionate dental care that gives them enduring confidence in themselves and their smiles.
We love being a part of the Bakersfield community, and we hope for the chance to meet all of you! Though we hope we don’t meet under urgent circumstances, we’re prepared to help if that is the case. Give us a call today to set an appointment and find relief.