Three dental situations need help immediately: facial swelling that is spreading, a knocked-out permanent tooth, and uncontrolled bleeding. Most other dental problems are urgent rather than emergencies — they need attention within a day or two, not within minutes.
Knowing which is which saves both unnecessary panic and dangerous delay.
Go to a hospital emergency department, not a dentist
Some situations are beyond the scope of a dental clinic. Seek emergency medical care for:
- Swelling that is spreading — closing the eye, extending under the jaw, or moving into the neck.
- Difficulty breathing or swallowing.
- A swelling with fever and feeling generally unwell.
- Uncontrolled bleeding that does not stop with twenty minutes of firm pressure.
- A suspected broken jaw, or a facial injury with loss of consciousness, vomiting, confusion or drowsiness.
A spreading dental infection is a medical emergency. It is uncommon, and it is not something to sleep on.
Within minutes
A knocked-out permanent tooth
Time is everything — the chance of saving it drops sharply with each passing hour.
- Pick it up by the crown, never the root.
- If dirty, rinse briefly in milk or saliva. Do not scrub. Do not use water for more than a moment.
- Put it back in the socket immediately if you can, and bite gently on a clean cloth to hold it.
- If you cannot, store it in milk — never water.
- Get to a dentist at once.
A knocked-out baby tooth is different: do not put it back. Reimplanting it risks damaging the permanent tooth developing above — see a knocked-out or broken baby tooth.
Within hours — contact us the same day
A tooth pushed out of position or loosened by a blow
Do not try to reposition it yourself. Soft diet, and be seen.
A fracture exposing the nerve
A pink or red spot in the middle of the broken surface. Keep the fragment in milk — see a broken or chipped tooth.
Severe toothache not controlled by ordinary pain relief
Particularly if it is keeping you awake — see toothache: what the pain is telling you.
A localised swelling or a bump on the gum
An abscess. Needs treating, and needs assessing before it spreads.
Bleeding after an extraction that has not settled
Bite firmly on rolled clean gauze for twenty minutes without checking it. If it continues, contact us; if it is heavy and uncontrolled, seek emergency care.
Severe pain days after an extraction
Likely dry socket, typically starting around day three to five, often with a bad taste. It is treatable and settles quickly once dressed.
Within a day or two — urgent but not an emergency
- A lost filling or crown. Keep the crown, keep the area clean, avoid chewing on it.
- A chipped tooth with no nerve exposure.
- Sensitivity that has become constant.
- A broken denture, or a denture causing an ulcer.
- A broken orthodontic wire or bracket — ease a poking wire with wax meanwhile.
- Pain around a partly erupted wisdom tooth — see wisdom teeth.
- An ulcer that has not healed in two weeks. This one should not be left longer, even though it is not painful in the way an abscess is.
First aid you can give meanwhile
- Pain relief at the recommended dose, taken regularly rather than waiting for pain to peak.
- Cold compress on the outside of the face for swelling, twenty minutes on and twenty off. Never heat.
- Warm salt-water rinses for soreness and to keep the area clean.
- Sleep with your head raised.
- Keep brushing, gently, even where it is tender.
- Orthodontic wax over a sharp edge or a poking wire.
What not to do
Do not place aspirin against the gum — it burns the tissue.
Do not apply heat to a facial swelling.
Do not take leftover antibiotics. Antibiotics do not treat a toothache; the source is inside the tooth and has to be dealt with mechanically. Taking them delays proper treatment and contributes to resistance.
Do not try to drain a swelling yourself.
Do not assume pain stopping means the problem has resolved. A tooth that hurt badly and then went quiet has often had the nerve die, and the infection continues silently.
When you are away from home
If you are travelling, find local emergency dental provision before you need it, keep your records accessible, and contact your own clinic for advice — a great deal can be assessed from a photograph and a description. See follow-up after you return home.
A small emergency kit worth having
Assembled in advance, this covers most of what you can usefully do before being seen. It costs very little and it is worth having at home and when travelling.
- Orthodontic wax — covers a sharp edge, a broken cusp or a poking wire. The single most useful item.
- Sterile gauze for bleeding.
- Temporary filling material from a pharmacy, to cover a lost filling or crown until you are seen.
- A small container with a lid, for a knocked-out tooth or a crown that has come off.
- Your usual pain relief, and a note of the maximum dose.
- Salt for rinses.
- Your dentist’s number, stored in your phone rather than remembered.
If a crown comes off cleanly and is intact, keep it — it can usually be recemented. Do not try to glue it back yourself with household adhesive; it makes proper recementation harder and can damage the tooth.
Managing pain overnight
Most dental emergencies happen outside clinic hours, and the question is always how to get through until morning.
- Take pain relief regularly at the recommended dose rather than waiting for pain to peak, and do not exceed the stated maximum.
- Sleep with your head raised on extra pillows. Lying flat increases pressure in an inflamed pulp, which is why toothache is so often worse at night.
- Cold compress on the outside of the face, twenty minutes on and twenty off.
- Warm salt-water rinses, gently.
- Avoid extremes of temperature and chew on the other side.
- Keep brushing, gently, including the affected area.
If pain is not controlled by ordinary analgesia, that is itself a reason to seek care rather than to keep waiting.
What we need to know when you call
Having these ready makes triage faster and more accurate: when it started; whether there is any swelling and whether it is spreading; whether you have a fever; whether you can swallow and breathe normally; what triggers the pain and how long it lasts; what pain relief you have taken and whether it helped; whether there was an injury; and your medical history and medications.
Swelling and uncontrolled pain are the two answers that most change how urgently you need to be seen.
Frequently asked questions
Is a lost filling an emergency?
No, but it should be seen within days. The tooth is unprotected and deteriorates quickly.
My face is swollen but it does not hurt much.
Swelling matters more than pain. Be seen the same day, and seek emergency care if it is spreading.
Should I go to hospital for a toothache?
An emergency department can give pain relief and treat a spreading infection, but it cannot treat the tooth. A dentist is the right place unless one of the red-flag signs above applies.
How do I know if it is an abscess?
Common signs are a localised swelling, a bump on the gum, a tooth that feels raised, and pain on biting. It needs treating.
Call us rather than waiting
If you are unsure how urgent something is, ask — that question is easy to answer over the phone. See our general dentistry page.
To reach our clinic on Abbas El-Akkad in Nasr City, call +20 101 969 7597 or message us on WhatsApp.
