Emergency Patient Information: Dental Emergency Guides

Written by Dr. Nick Jadidi, DDS — Last updated June 12, 2026 · 3-minute read

This article is general information for our patients, not a diagnosis. If something in your mouth hurts, changes, or worries you, have it examined.

When something in your mouth suddenly hurts, you do not want a library. You want the right page, fast. So this page is short: eight guides, each opening with what to do first, starting from “is this an emergency at all?” If you would rather just talk to a person, skip the reading and phone us instead.

Is this a dental emergency at all?

A dental emergency means severe pain, a knocked-out or broken tooth, swelling that is spreading, or bleeding after dental work. We treat almost all of these at our practice, usually the same day — though bleeding you truly cannot control belongs in the red-flag box below, not a waiting room. A small set of red flags mean the hospital comes first. Start with what counts as a dental emergency and what to do first; it separates the “see us today” problems from the ones that can safely wait until morning, and lists every red flag.

What does my toothache mean, and how urgent is it?

The pattern of a toothache points to its cause: pain that lingers, starts on its own, or comes with swelling usually means the nerve is dying or infected. Painkillers can buy you a night. They cannot fix that. Our guide to toothache and dental infection decodes the common pain patterns and explains how a pocket of infection at the root (an abscess) develops, plus which painkillers are worth taking while you wait.

What should I do first for a knocked-out, chipped or loosened tooth?

Hold a knocked-out adult tooth by the white crown only, put it straight back into its socket or into cold milk, and call a dentist immediately. A tooth replanted within about 15 minutes has the strongest chance of surviving. Those first minutes matter as much as anything we do afterwards. Every step is in our guide to first aid for knocked-out, chipped and displaced teeth, including why a knocked-out baby tooth must never be pushed back in.

Why is the gum around my wisdom tooth swollen and sore?

A flap of gum over a wisdom tooth that has only partly come through traps food and bacteria, and when that trapped debris gets infected the gum swells and turns sore (dentists call this pericoronitis). It is one of the most common reasons people call us in pain. Most flare-ups settle with a professional clean under the gum flap plus warm salt-water rinses at home; antibiotics and removal are not automatic. Read wisdom teeth and pericoronitis for what calms a flare-up and when removal makes sense, and call us the same day if you have a fever or a jaw that will not open. Trouble swallowing, or swelling spreading toward your neck or eye, is a hospital red flag. See the box below.

I had a tooth out and the pain is getting worse. Is that normal?

No. Extraction pain should ease a little each day, and a deep ache that ramps up around day two or three usually means a dry socket. It happens when the protective blood clot in the socket is lost too early. It is not dangerous, and a medicated dressing from us often relieves the pain within minutes. Our dry socket guide shows you how to tell it apart from normal healing and how to protect the clot in the first few days.

When should a mouth ulcer worry me?

Any sore that has not healed in two to three weeks should be examined, even if it does not hurt. Most ulcers heal on their own well inside that window, within one to two weeks. That cut-off is the one thing I want every patient to remember about ulcers. For the rest, there is Mouth ulcers and the two-to-three-week rule: which sores are harmless, and what soothes one while it heals.

What if my problem is not listed here?

Two urgent problems are easy to miss: a cracked tooth that hurts as you release a bite, and a jaw joint (TMJ) that locks open or shut. Go straight to teeth grinding and cracked teeth or jaw pain and TMJ for those. Anything less urgent, from cavities and gum disease to dentures and sensitivity, sits in the full Adult Patient Information library, written in the same plain language.

Not sure who to call first?

Call us at 705-721-9229 and describe what is happening. Sorting out how urgent something is over the phone is part of our job. You do not need to be certain it is “bad enough” before phoning. If you want to see what a same-day emergency visit at our Barrie practice looks like, that is on our emergency dental care page.