If you have never dealt with a dental emergency, you might not know what to do when an unfortunate dental problem occurs when you least expect it. Notably, it can leave you in excruciating pain. Some people head straight to a regular dentist, only to find out that they do not offer emergency dentistry services. Therefore, you should have an emergency dentist on-call so that you know who to turn to in case of a dental emergency. While saving the teeth and pain management are the most notable benefits of emergency dentistry, there are other equally critical reasons for engaging an emergency dentist. This article highlights the lesser-known benefits of emergency dentistry.

Reduce Risk of Infections

Mitigating the risk of infections is one reason patients seek emergency dental services. When suffering from a minor toothache, it is easy to brush the problem aside by taking painkillers. Most patients wait until they cannot take the pain anymore to rush to a dentist. However, pain is an indicator of an underlying problem, and since painkillers only address the symptom, it allows the root problem to worsen. Unfortunately, it opens you up to oral infections, which might cause significant damage to your oral cavity. Therefore, seeking emergency dentistry services helps keep potential infections at bay.

Keep Dental Care Costs Low

Dental care can be pretty costly, especially cosmetic dentistry. However, you should not rely on home remedies to help you manage a dental emergency. While some home remedies can help relieve pain, the relief is only temporary and does not address the real issue. For instance, most people attest to managing bleeding gums at home by rinsing the mouth with a warm saltwater solution and applying turmeric paste on the gums. However, if you do not seek emergency dentistry services quickly, your gums might begin to recede. Eventually, you might have to undergo gum contouring through grafting, which is expensive. Therefore, seeing an emergency dentist helps keep future dental care costs low.

Prevent Septicemia

Also referred to as sepsis or blood poisoning, septicemia is the last thing any patient would want to experience because of its effects. Sepsis that progresses to septic shock has a significant chance of causing death. Unfortunately, most patients believe that oral illnesses cannot lead to sepsis; hence, they do not bother seeing an emergency dentist. However, if you do not address an underlying dental infection on time, an abscess forms around the infected area and eventually gets into the bloodstream. The bacteria in the bloodstream might send the antibodies and white blood cells into overdrive and ultimately lead to septic shock. To prevent septicemia, seek emergency dentistry to eliminate abscesses early.