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Sometimes you’re faced with a painful or urgent situation that puts your mouth or teeth at risk such as an injury or noticing symptoms of an irritation or infection. We can’t always get an appointment with our regular dentist as soon as we’d like. In scenarios like this, you may seek emergency dental treatment through a dentist office that provides services over the weekend.
For patients that are looking for an emergency dentist with no insurance or extra cash/credit to pay for their dental emergency, EDS now offers multiple financing options to help cover unexpected dental expenses. Get an Instant approval (all credit levels accepted): click here to apply for a Dental Emergency Line Of Credit.
To schedule a same-day appointment, simply call 1-833-624-1382, enter your zip code, and our patient support team will help you find a dentist immediately.
Dentists across the country often will open up their own private practice as an administrator and business owner. However, since they themselves oversee their dentist office instead of being managed with a large corporation or hospital structure, they simultaneously have more control and restrictions.
These dentists are responsible for setting their normal business hours and days of operation, commonly only seeing patients up to five days a week. They also are entirely in charge of their employees’ schedules and how many staff members to hire at one time, many opting to only employ a few qualified hygienists and support staff. Due to this and the fact that these small businesses typically only serve a clientele of the surrounding local community, their office is rarely open for an extensive amount of hours or flexible availability, like operating on weekends.
Although, some dentists do choose to open their practice during Saturday or Sundays, extending their schedule to the convenience or benefit of their patients, not excluding the dental emergencies that are bound to take advantage of such availability.
Not every dental issue warrants an emergency visit to the dentist’s office but when the circumstances are especially concerning or indicative or a serious problem, it’s smart to know when to start looking for a dentistry that’s open. You may opt to wait out the pain, if possible, until your regular dentist can schedule you in but even relatively urgent matters are subject to distant appointment dates.
It’s normal to experience the occasional toothache or mouth soreness as long as the problem resolves itself or quickly subsides. In most situations, oral discomfort shouldn’t continue or get worse over the course of a day or two as this may be a sign of a fundamental issue.
Furthermore, sometimes the pain is so severe and/or shows up along with other symptoms causing you to seriously consider that you may be dealing with an urgent dental emergency.
A dental emergency is not only deeply unpleasant physically but also can leave you susceptible to an infection, permanent tooth loss, or further worsening damage.
One indication that you may need to see a dentist soon for treatment is if the pain in your mouth or specific tooth is significant, worsened with time and/or increased when you talk/eat, touch the area or expose it to hot or cold temperatures.
Not every dental matter necessitates emergency care, such as minor cracks, chips, or imperfections on the tooth’s surface as these are more unlikely be a result over a more dangerous health hazard and can wait until you next see your dentist, if the pain is manageable.
However, significant fractures, dislodged teeth, or extreme physical pain pose more concern since they can impact daily activities and likely are beyond at-home remedies. Here are some common dental crises that an emergency dentist office can help you with:
Even though the costs may be slightly more than a usual dentist appointment, avoiding urgent dental treatment poses serious health risks and has the potential to complicate your normal day to day tasks. When a tooth is becoming loose or has fallen out of your mouth, you are more likely to suffer more significant damage or injury to the tooth as well as your nerves and soft tissues (tongue, cheeks, lips, gums) or even permanent tooth loss.
If you may be dealing with an oral infection, you are also left more susceptible to the infectious bacteria to extend to the rest of your body, causing serious conditions such as sepsis.
Leaving your dental problems untreated can lead to your symptoms to get worse, more painful, and cause your gums or nerves to become infected or sustain severe harm.
It’s dangerous to avoid seeking the dental treatment you require within a timely manner but may in fact cost you more in dentist expenses because of the additional care that's needed to address the condition if it’s progressed or caused supplemental trauma to the mouth.
You also probably don’t want to put yourself through the pain that will make talking, eating, and drinking more difficult, distracting you from your duties and generally reducing your ability to relax or enjoy most things. Emergency dentists have the potential to cost you more but you will almost certainly be treated sooner, being able to more quickly return to your normal life.
Some dentists can’t schedule you for extended periods of time, only fitting you in several weeks down the line, regardless of how much pain you’re in, since they can’t ask other patients to cancel. At-home remedies usually only bring temporary relief and won’t resolve the primary problem. Putting off looking into getting immediate dental treatment is dangerous because it can lead to further injury, such as permanent nerve damage or tooth loss and infection.
It’s more advisable to see a weekend dentist with flexible availability that can service your dental issue and may treat dental problems within the same appointment or provide you with enough treatment and pain relief to hold you over until a proper and scheduled appointment. Emergency dental services are able to buy you time, prep you for continued care in the near future, lessen your pain and instruct you how to keep the area clean and less at risk.
For those who have gone through a dental emergency or extreme mouth pain (or have had to care for a loved one enduring one), you can recall how overwhelmed and helpless the situation can cause you to feel.
Weekend dentist offices that are available to patients with urgent dental problems can carry out the same procedures and provide the same services that your usual provider might but with an added flexibility and shorter wait times to treat their clients; they can typically see you on the day that you ask for care.
Dentist offices open on Saturdays or Sundays can not only see you on shorter notice but will offer, at minimum, sufficient treatment to bring pain relief in addition to addressing the problem adequately enough so you’re stable enough while waiting to be seen at a more in-depth and prepared dentist appointment. Some issues may be simply resolved during that one visit but more involved procedures such as a root canal or a wisdom tooth extraction will usually need a follow-up visit.
You can expect your urgent dental appointment to be very similar to your other dentist visits. One benefit is that you likely won’t wait long to be seen since dentist offices don’t see nearly as many patients as they do during the week and traditional business hours. To begin your emergency appointment, the dentist will take a look at your mouth to see if any irritation or damage is visibly apparent as a cursory glance.
They may also ask for details regarding the current circumstances and what may have led to your injury or pain such as if you know the impacting event or when you noticed the symptoms, the type of pain(s) you’re experiencing, how drastic or often they are and other information such as your lifestyle or any recent changes.
If nothing appears wrong during an initial examination, they will likely proceed to get X-rays of your mouth/jaw to see the integrity of your internal dental health. After acquiring info from you and assessing the situation, the dentist will determine your options and how to best proceed forward.
They will likely provide you pain relief in the meantime and tell you how to treat the issue at home until your usual dentist can treat you within more prepared circumstances or at a follow-up appointment at their dental office.They might able to address the fundamental issue or cause of your pain within the one appointment but will often ensure you schedule a follow-up with them or your regular dentistry.
Why a Weekend Emergency Dental Office Is a Smart Idea Despite Extra Costs
It’s true that emergency dentists who provide patients with care during weekend hours are likely to charge additional costs when compared to a normally scheduled appointment. Generally, the extra costs associated with emergency dental services are from having qualified staff on call to conduct X-rays or filling a tooth, for example, that many patients with urgent issues often require; additionally, the supplies used within certain dental procedures will cost the dentist office in fees related to required specialized labor and equipment.
While this can deter patients in need of urgent attention, there are still options to manage the extra costs so you don’t put off seeing a professional treatment in order to simply save on costs or because, like most people, you don’t have the lump sum to pay for the service upfront.
Emergency Dental Service offers payment plans that can additionally provide you with reduced rates or discounts because of some dentists within our network offering patients discounts between 20 and 60 percent when they are utilizing our plan. Dentist offices will also sometimes offer a few payment options for you to choose from.
If You Unexpectedly Need a Villanova Dentist Open Weekends
Sometimes we or our loved ones suddenly suffer from a weekend dental emergency and soon the anxiety sets in when you wonder “Are dentists open on weekends?” By using resources from Emergency Dental Service, you can schedule an appointment with a weekend emergency dentist today.
An Emergency Dental Service staff member can promptly provide you with a preliminary opinion and evaluation of your concerns including how you may treat any pain or discomfort, before finding you a dentist near you and even schedule you a same-day appointment. Call us at 1-833-624-1382 to get help connecting with a provider in your area.