Redwood City Emergency Dentistry

If you are experiencing a dental emergency, please call our office at (650) 592-6396 immediately. We'll see you as soon as possible to help you through your issue and get you out of pain. We are currently accepting new patients.

What is emergency dentistry?

Emergency dentistry is available to patients who have experienced a dental injury or accident, or are in severe dental pain and discomfort. The goal of emergency dental care is to get patients out of pain quickly and back to optimal oral health as soon as possible. Dentists will often leave openings in their schedules for same-day emergency appointments, and will sometimes be available after-hours and on weekends. Schedule a consultation at the office of Dr. Ghina Morad today or stop by our office located at 2920 Broadway, Redwood City, CA 94061.

Get the care you need when you need it most in Red Wood City. We also proudly serve San Carlos and Menlo Park.

Emergency dentistry in Redwood City

Get the care you need when you need it most.

What do I do in a dental emergency in Redwood City?

Injuries or accidents that result in a dental emergency can be very scary for patients. But as long as you remember that there is a solution to every dental issue, you'll be able to stay calm and give yourself the care you need until you can come to our office to be treated.

Stay Calm
Control Bleeding & Pain
Call Us!

Treating dental emergencies in Redwood City

Redwood City, CA same day dental care

Same-Day Dental Care

Same-day dental care ensures that you can resolve your dental emergency quickly and get the care you need from your emergency dentist right away. Putting off treatment can put you at risk for more serious complications. For example, a broken tooth that could be easily treated with a dental crown might become infected and require a root canal if left untreated. Delaying treatment also forces you to deal with pain that you simply don't need to live with.  

The sooner you see your Redwood City dentist for your dental emergencies, the sooner you'll be on your way to back to optimal dental health. We offer same-day care to ensure that you get the treatment you need when you need it.

aftetr hours

After Hours Appointments

We offer after-hours appointments to patients who are experiencing serious dental emergencies or trauma. We understand that emergencies don't just happen from 9 to 5, so we extend ourselves and our care to best help our patients in their times of need. If a dental emergency strikes beyond business hours, give us a call to schedule an after-hours appointment and get the help you need from our team.

calendar with pins

Weekend Appointments

With weekend appointments, you don't have to wait until Monday to get the dental care you need. We offer limited weekend hours and appointments by request, which ensures that you can get emergency dental care ASAP, avoid common complications related to damaged teeth, and get relief from your pain and discomfort. Call now for more information.

dental emergency in red wood city

Common Emergency Procedures

Depending on your issue, your emergency dentist may suggest any number of treatments to get you back to normal. Dental crowns, for instance, are commonly used to treat broken, damaged, or seriously-decayed teeth. If you've been experiencing a severe or chronic toothache, an infection may be the culprit, and your emergency dentist may recommend root canal therapy.  

Other common procedures include tooth splinting, which is used to stabilize a loose or knocked-out tooth and allow it to heal. More rarely, tooth extractions may be required to remove seriously damaged teeth that cannot be treated with alternative methods of restorative care. For incredibly severe circumstances, oral surgery may be required.

Have questions about emergency dentistry?
Find answers here.

What should I do if I’ve knocked out a tooth?

First, recover your tooth. Grab it by the top (the crown) not the bottom (the root), as this will ensure you don't damage the tooth further. You can rinse it with warm water, if necessary. Then, you'll need to replace it in the socket or put it into a container of cold milk to keep it moist until you come in to see the dentist.

Don't spend too much time trying to treat pain and discomfort. This is an extremely serious dental emergency, and your tooth must be replaced and splinted by your emergency dentist within 1-2 hours to save it. Give us a call right away for immediate instructions, and come see our team ASAP to get the help you need now.

What should I do if my dental work has fallen out?

If possible, recover your dental work and put it in a plastic bag or container that you can bring with you to your appointment. Next, call us right away to schedule that appointment.

This is a serious dental emergency because losing a piece of dental work exposes vulnerable parts of your tooth to bacteria, which can cause infection, further decay or damage, and other complications. Get a same-day appointment, and you can restore your smile with a new filling, crown, or other restorative dental work.

What should I do about a severe toothache?

A severe toothache that lasts 1-2 days or longer usually indicates a tooth infection, which can be a very serious dental emergency. You may need root canal therapy to restore your tooth and prevent it from dying.

Call us immediately to schedule an appointment. Until that appointment, you can use Orajel or a similar topical numbing product to numb the tooth, or take over-the-counter tooth pain relievers. Applying an ice pack may also help with your discomfort until you can get dental treatment for your condition.

What should I do about a chipped, broken or cracked tooth?

Even if the damage seems minor, call us for a same-day emergency appointment. Sometimes it's difficult to know the severity of a chip, break or crack without a professional dental exam. A broken or cracked tooth can easily become infected if it's not treated quickly. This can cause further and unnecessary complications.

Call us and come see our team as soon as you can. Your Redwood City dentist will examine the tooth and determine the extent of the damage. From there, they can offer their best recommendations to repair and protect your smile.

What should I do about a loose tooth?

A loose tooth after a dental injury is a serious emergency. Without proper care, the nerves supporting your tooth may die, or the tooth may fall out of your mouth entirely. You need to call our team immediately for a same-day appointment.  

Once you've scheduled your appointment, avoid touching the loose tooth with your tongue or fingers to help mitigate tooth pain. The less you move it around, the better. Once you get to our office, your emergency dentist in Redwood City, CA will splint and stabilize the tooth by attaching it to the adjacent teeth. This allows it to heal and re-attach to your gums.

Do not contact the emergency room for a dental issue.

What Will a Dentist Do In An Emergency?

If you are experiencing a dental emergency, the best place you can go unless you are dealing with a life-threatening complication is to go straight to the dentist. We place patients who are experiencing a dental emergency at the top of our priority list, as prompt treatment is crucial to prevent complications and worsening pain. 

Once you arrive, we will try to accommodate you as soon as possible. Your appointment will start with an examination along with you giving us the details of your discomfort and if you are aware of the cause. We may need to take x-rays to look for signs of an infection, tooth decay, or problems with the eruption of wisdom teeth.

After determining the root cause of the problem, we will focus on pain relief. We have access to highly powerful numbing, sedative, and pain-relief agents. We may inject you with a local anesthetic so you don’t feel any more pain during the appointment and so we can focus on treatment. 

Antibiotics may be prescribed as well as additional pain medication if necessary. During this appointment, we can begin to treat the problem or create temporary fixes but you may need to return for future appointments to complete the treatment. 

If you have an infection, we can perform a pulpectomy where we will remove the infected dental pulp and that should relieve your pain and discomfort. We will still, however, need to clean your canals and refill the tooth which takes multiple appointments. 

For broken, chipped, or damaged teeth, we may need to fabricate crowns or other tooth restorations which require the cooperation of an outside dental lab, waiting periods, and multiple appointments. 

We can, however, place temporary tooth restorations while you wait for your official restoration. We will send you home with aftercare instructions on how to manage pain and prevent worsening the problem until your treatment is complete.

Why Should I Deal With a Dental Emergency Quickly?

Oral health issues can worsen very rapidly if left unchecked. When you suffer from dental trauma, a broken tooth can leave your nerves exposed, which can leave you vulnerable to infection. 

An infection can also develop from untreated tooth decay that started minor but continued to penetrate through the teeth because nothing was done about it. Tooth infections are very serious and cause an immense amount of pain, swelling, and discomfort. 

An infection needs to be treated as soon as possible to prevent serious health risks like sepsis. These oral health problems like tooth decay can also spread to the surrounding teeth, leaving you with even bigger and more costly problems. The sooner you seek treatment, the greater the chance you have of saving your teeth and the faster you will relieve your pain.

What Is the Most Common Dental Emergency?

There are several common dental emergencies but by far the most common is a severe toothache. You might be thinking, wait, a toothache is a dental emergency? If the pain is significant and does not respond to pain medication, yes, it’s considered an emergency! 

Any time you are experiencing tooth pain, that’s a sign that something is wrong. Healthy teeth do not ache and it could indicate that you have damage, tooth decay, or an infection. 

Oftentimes patients aren’t sure what is causing their tooth pain and other times they can tell us of a specific incident that likely caused it. After examining and taking x-rays of your tooth, we should be able to pinpoint the cause and get you relief right away.

Do you need to be seen today?

Call (650) 592-6396