Same-Day Emergency Care, Same-Day Crowns

stephenlega • March 23, 2016

You don’t know why you thought riding your son’s skateboard would be a good idea. Sure, you had one when you were a teen, but that’s also the last time you rode one.

You started out OK, gliding down the sidewalk. Then you hit a bump. You fell. You hit your mouth on the sidewalk, and part of your tooth broke off.

You aren’t bleeding, thankfully, but you are a little embarrassed. You expected your son to laugh at your fall, but instead, he rushed to your side to see if you were OK.

Then, he surprised you by making a call to Total Dental Care of South Carolina to report a dental emergency. He hung up and told you that he would drive to the dentist office at 1061 St. Andrews Road in Columbia.

Dealing With Your Broken Tooth

During any dental emergency, you will want to get help as soon as you can. Your dentist has a better chance of saving your damaged tooth or teeth if he or she can see you sooner.

In the situation above (a chipped or broken tooth), you would want to do the following things:

  • Find any broken pieces of your tooth.
  • Rinse those pieces in water to remove any dirt from them.
  • Place those pieces in a container of milk.
  • Rinse your mouth to remove any blood.
  • Cover the broken tooth with gauze or a piece of wax. A broken tooth may have a sharp edge or a point that can cut your cheeks, gums, or lips.
  • Use ice or a cold compress on the affected area to reduce swelling and relieve pain.
  • Call Total Dental Care of South Carolina at 803-272-4162 to make an appointment as soon as you are able.

If a dental emergency happens to you or someone you love, we know you may be scared. That’s understandable, and it’s why we make every effort to see you as soon as possible.

Fixing Your Broken Tooth

How we handle your situation will depend on how much of your tooth has broken away.

If the damage is relatively minor, we may be able to fix your tooth with dental bonding. By using a tooth-colored material, we can rebuild the shape of your tooth.

In more serious cases, we may have to make a dental crown instead. If this is your situation, then you will appreciate that we offer CEREC crowns in our office.

CEREC stands for ceramic reconstruction. Each of these crowns is made from a small ceramic block. Dentists use ceramic materials because they look like a natural tooth and because they are strong enough to function like a natural tooth.

To make your crown, we will reshape your damaged tooth into an abutment. This is when CEREC becomes a big benefit for you.

At another dentist office, they would need to order your crown from a laboratory. This could take weeks to be completed and returned to your dentist. In the meantime, the dentist would place a temporary crown on your broken tooth.

At Total Dental Care of South Carolina, we have a CEREC milling machine in our office. During your appointment, we can create your permanent dental crown that same day.

The crown will be bonded to your tooth, and you will leave looking like you still have a complete set of healthy teeth.

How Same Day Crowns Are Possible

The CEREC system uses some of the best technology available in modern dentistry.

This starts with its 3D imaging system. This information is sent to a computer, which is used to design your dental crown.

That design is the blueprint used to reshape a small ceramic block into the shape of a tooth that will fit precisely where it needs to fit inside your mouth.

By having the milling machine on site, we save you the time required to send the order to a laboratory that is, more than likely, receiving orders from multiple offices. When that lab gets around to making your dental crown, they then have to ship it back to the dentist’s office.

With CEREC, you won’t have to make a second appointment just to get your new crown.

Know Where To Go In a Dental Emergency

We hope no one in or around Columbia, SC, will ever need emergency dental care, but we want to be the dentist office that you call if you do.

In a dental emergency, the fastest way to reach Total Dental Care of South Carolina is by calling 803-272-4162.

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