Managing Toothaches and Dental Abscesses in Pediatric Patients
Toothache versions differ from persistent to periodic. The discomfort can be severe or mild and respond to specific stimuli. Whatever the interpretation of toothache in children, the best way to help them is to see the pediatric dentist near me to identify the problem in your child’s tooth before it worsens.
You might be tempted to wait and avoid dental visits, hoping the pain will disappear. The temptation of trying home remedies may also seem alluring. However, dentists advise against taking these routes because toothaches are signs that your child has a dental injury or infection, making it essential to schedule an appointment with the nearby pediatric dentist at the earliest.
Preventing Dental Emergencies in Children
When you notice your child complaining of dental pain or refusing to eat, it is best to have your child’s tooth pain evaluated by a pediatric dentist to ensure your child does not have a cavity or a dental abscess infecting a tooth.
If you delay seeking treatment for your child’s tooth pain beyond 24 hours, they will experience severe discomfort as the pain worsens and the infection expands. In such cases, you must try your best to prevent dental emergencies in children requiring help from emergency pediatric dentistry in Houston, TX, when least expected.
Emergency pediatric dentists can help manage dental situations affecting children by providing effective remedies to help overcome the pain after considering the severity of the problem and recommending appropriate treatment. For example, if your child is complaining of a toothache because of a cavity in the initial stages, the pediatric dentist recommends a straightforward silver diamine fluoride therapy to help reverse the early stages of tooth decay. However, if your child has a hole in the tooth, the dentist can restore it with fillings.
If your child has an untreated cavity in a tooth that has expanded to infect the dental pulp and has created a dental abscess, pediatric dentists can help manage children’s problems by providing pain relievers and antibiotics and suggesting a root canal.
The treatments you seek for your child’s tooth pain from the emergency pediatric dentistry facility will prove expensive, costing more than maintaining your child’s dental health in optimal shape.
If you intend to prevent dental emergencies in children, you must ensure you get them to brush twice daily, floss once, and limit their diet to healthy foods like fruits and vegetables, refraining them from consuming sugary and carbohydrate-rich foods to prevent dental infections from developing in their mouth. You must also include six monthly appointments with the Houston pediatric dentist for checkups and cleanings to enable the dentist to identify dental infections that might aggravate into emergencies. The preventive measures you adopt will prove beneficial because they help prevent dental emergencies in children while supporting their oral and general health.
First Aid for Dental Emergencies
If your child is over ten and has all permanent teeth and has suffered trauma, you should contact the pediatric dentist immediately to help them find relief from the pain they experience. Infections in the teeth do not heal by themselves, making attention from the dentist essential. However, until you reach the dentist’s office, ice packs and cold compresses help your child alleviate pain, and consider providing them OTC pain relievers after inquiring about the appropriate medications for children from the pharmacist nearby. However, getting your child’s tooth assessed by the dentist is a requirement to pay attention to.
If your child’s tooth is sensitive to temperatures, an assessment by the dentist is essential to ensure they don’t have a severe infection. Temperature sensitivity is a symptom of chipped or cracked teeth or a dental abscess indicating your child has a painful condition that requires endodontic treatment to preserve the tooth or extraction and space maintainers to prevent the remaining teeth from drifting to create misalignments in the child’s mouth.
Swelling in the mouth is a typical dental emergency but is never a good sign. It might indicate infection, but you can bet it will not subside unless treated by the dentist. In such cases, your child must be sitting upright without lying flat until you reach the pediatric dentist. Humans are not crustaceans that can redevelop the teeth or claws they lose. Therefore, ensure your child has a healthy diet and drinks plenty of water besides brushing and flossing, as the dentist recommends. While you can use the tips mentioned above as first-aid for your child’s dental emergency or toothache, getting your child’s tooth assessed by the dentist is an essential requirement better noticed.
If your child complains of a toothache, seek treatment for the discomfort immediately from Greenway Pediatric Dentistry. They can assess whether your child has a dental infection or abscess and immediately provide necessary relief treatments.