Late night urgent care centers are, more often than not, medical clinics that give immediate care for serious and life-threatening health concerns. Dental urgent care may be a fairly new concept, but a lot of dental providers are now riding on this trend. These dental clinics ease the congestion from both hospital emergency departments and primary care clinics, where dental patients mistakenly or intentionally go to seek consultation. They go there because emergency services are covered by insurance, or they are still unaware that a dental urgent care clinic is available in their area. An after-hours dentist can act as a source for urgent dental care. Let’s discover what late night urgent care centers can do, and know if they can see patients on a walk-in basis, without an appointment, to reduce patient hassles and stress.
Late night urgent care center: What an emergency dental clinic is
A dental emergency is a condition caused by trauma, injury, or a developing dental problem that needs urgent or immediate attention so the symptoms get addressed efficiently by a dental professional. There are several late night urgent care centers available now that has on-call dentists and dental specialist that are willing to serve and care for you during the wee hours of the night or whenever your regular dentist is not available.
Services of a late night urgent care dental clinic
- Knocked-out tooth
An after-hours dentist can replace the tooth, as long as it is put back in the tooth socket within 1 or 2 hours. The emergency dentist examines the tooth first to make sure that the tooth root has not been damaged. The mouth is also assessed to see if there are any other cuts or injuries to the gums. The tooth is washed carefully and inserted back into the socket. The dentist may use a metal or composite resin brace to keep the tooth in place for at least 8 weeks. He, the emergency dentist, can then refer the patient to visit his regular dentist for aftercare processes, or so a root canal is performed soon after the tooth is replaced.
- Toothache
The emergency dentist can identify the cause of the pain so he can then perform the needed procedure to address the cause and alleviate the pain. It may be an abscess treatment from an infection or an emergency root canal for a knocked-out tooth. After the procedure, an emergency dentist can give patients prescriptions for antibiotics and pain medicine. He can also give you helpful tips on how to handle tooth pain at home, like recommending some tried-and-tested home remedies.
- Cracked or broken teeth
The emergency dentist can perform imaging tests like x-rays of the mouth to make sure the root of the broken tooth is not damaged in any way. If the root is healthy, then as a late night urgent care dentist, he will prepare the tooth for a temporary crown. He cannot put on a permanent one because he still needs to submit an impression first taken during the emergency visit, so a dental laboratory can create a permanent porcelain crown for the tooth. Because of this, the emergency dentist can only an acrylic cap to protect the tooth for now. In cases where the tooth is cracked superficially across the crown, however, the dentist uses resin composites to form a filling.
