The COVID-19 pandemic is having wide-ranging impacts on our everyday lives, including scheduled dental and other appointments.
Dentists and patients nationwide are postponing non-urgent dental procedures through April 30 in order to help slow the spread of COVID-19.
Concentrating on emergency and urgent dental care only during this period will allow dentists and their teams to care for emergency patients and reduce the burden that dental emergencies would place on hospital emergency departments.
How do I know what is considered a dental emergency?
Here’s a guide to what you can reschedule for a time when dentists have resumed normal operations, and what you should consider an emergency. If you’re not sure whether your dental care need counts as an emergency, call our office. We can help decide if you need to be seen immediately or see you via a virtual televisit.
- Dental care you can reschedule for another time:
- Regular visits for exams, cleanings and x-rays
- Regular visits for braces
- Removal of teeth that aren’t painful
- Treatment of cavities that aren’t painful
- Tooth whitening
- Dental care that you should have taken care of as soon as possible and which may be an emergency:
- Bleeding that doesn’t stop
- Painful swelling in or around your mouth
- Pain in a tooth, teeth or jaw bone
- Gum infection with pain or swelling
- After surgery treatment (dressing change, stitch removal)
- Broken or knocked out tooth
- Denture adjustment for people receiving radiation or other treatment for cancer
- Snipping or adjusting wire of braces that hurts your cheek or gums
- Biopsy of abnormal tissue
Even during this outbreak, it’s important to maintain good oral hygiene habits to prevent emergencies from occurring in the first place.
As always, we are here and available for any emergency dental care, including televisits.
