Broken Braces: How to Handle Orthodontic Emergencies

It can be challenging to stay with crooked or misaligned teeth. Besides affecting your oral health, as it is challenging to brush between teeth, misaligned teeth can also affect your confidence when smiling. Fortunately, the dentist near you can install braces to correct the teeth misalignment issue. Depending on your misalignment issue, you might be wearing your braces for more than a year. During this period, your braces can break, and you can injure the soft tissues in your mouth. So, how will you handle the orthodontic emergency, and how do you know it is one? s

What Are Some Common Orthodontic Emergencies?

Swallowed Appliance

If you’ve mistakenly swallowed a band or bracket, instruct someone to flashlight into your throat and mouth. If the person cannot see the swallowed appliance and you’re having breathing difficulties, it might mean that you breathed it into your lungs. When this happens, go to the emergency room as soon as possible.

Poking Wires

After wearing your braces for some time, you might notice that wires begin to come out. These wires can begin poking your gums and need to be fixed. You can try and fix the poking wire on your own.

Traumatic Injury

Accidents are normal, and some can leave you with injuries to your mouth and gums. If you have sustained an injury to your gums or have a cracked or knocked-out tooth, you will need to go to the emergency dentist in San Antonio as soon as possible. The dentist will alleviate the pain and salvage your natural tooth.

If the traumatic injury has left you with a knocked-out tooth, bring it to the orthodontics in San Antonio. The orthodontist will try and put the tooth back in its place.

Broken Retainer

Eating hard foods, wear and tear, and trauma can all lead to the breakage of your retainer. This can be a dental emergency as a broken retainer can incorrectly apply force to your teeth, different from what was intended. If your retainer breaks, you should stop wearing them and store them well. Take your broken retainers to the dentist near you so that they can fix them and examine your teeth.

Irritation In Your Mouth

Wearing braces for the first time will feel foreign. This is especially true when you wear metallic braces. Metallic braces can cause ulcerations in your lips and cheeks; they should heal in no time. Nevertheless, if the ulcerations grow larger after taking anti-inflammatory drugs, you should contact the orthodontist near you. They will instruct you on what to do and schedule your next appointment.

How to Identify and Address Common Urgent Dental Issues

It can be quite challenging to differentiate what is a dental emergency and what is not. A dental emergency can sabotage your teeth, oral health, or overall health. On the other hand, some incidences don’t necessitate urgent dental care as they don’t cause any immediate threat to your teeth or health.

So, if you have loose wires or bands, apply wax to the piece of wire that is sticking out. If you don’t have wax, tryusing a cotton ball. You can use a sterilized pair of nail clippers and trim the loose wire.

Moreover, if you’re experiencing irritation in your mouth due to wearing the traditional braces for a long, try over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen. The drugs will help reduce irritation as you try and reach out to the orthodontist near you.

When dealing with a cracked or knocked-out tooth, you need to stay calm and not panic. If bleeding, control it by placing a cotton ball on the injured area. Pick the knocked-out tooth by the crown and dip it in a glass of milk. You can now head for urgent dental care with the knocked-out tooth.

Swallowing a dental appliance can leave you panicking. However, if you don’t face problems like trouble breathing, the appliance will pass through the digestive system normally without causing any issues.

You should be ready to deal with any accident before contacting the orthodontist at Terrell Hills Dental for urgent dental care. Contact us during a dental emergency, and our dentist will help you accordingly.

Skip to content Click to listen highlighted text!