Emergency Dental Care
By Dr. Linda Niessen -- Baylor College of Dentistry STORY: ER DENTAL CARE SCRIPT #526 SHOOT: 9/10/03 DHC #18 Timecode: 27:25
Monday, October 06, 2003
Every year, thousands of children break or dislodge their teeth. That is what happened to 8-year-old Austin Bashaw, whose permanent front teeth were damaged in a home accident.
“(He was) running around the house and he had a collision with his brother, planting his brand new front teeth into the forehead of one of his little brothers … dislocation where they pushed in and were pointing toward the back of the throat,” Austin’s father, Tony Bashaw, said.
Dr. Elizabeth Fagan of Richardson Regional Medical Center calls in a staff dentist when a patient’s tooth appears to be in jeopardy. “We are really lucky because we have a dentist on staff who will allow us to call 24/7, doesn’t mind if we bounce things off of her and is always willing to come in especially for all our children,” said ER physician Dr. Elizabeth Fagan.
Enter Dr. Pam Moore, a former ER nurse, who now practices dentistry. “By working all those years, I saw patients in crisis with dental emergencies and saw the frustration that even if they had a dentist, the dentist not having hospital privileges and not being able to come in and take care of them in this setting,” Moore said.
Most hospitals do not have a staff dentist who responds to emergencies at night or on weekends. Call the hospital ER before you show up. “Because there are so many areas that don’t have coverage or back-up for dental emergencies,” Fagan said.
If an emergency occurs during office hours, go directly to your dentist. After hours, try to reach the dentist by phone. Avoid the hospital ER if the dentist will see you immediately at the office.
Dentists are the best doctors to handle a dental emergency. So when possible, your first phone call should be to the dental office. But to do that, you already must have a relationship with a dentist who can treat all your dental problems including an emergency. For Baylor College of Dentistry, The Texas A&M University System Health Science Center in Dallas, I'm Dr. Linda Niessen.
Dr. Linda Niessen, clinical professor in the Department of Restorative Sciences and the Office of Communications and Development at Baylor College of Dentistry, hosts Dental Health Check, the only weekly dental feature shot on location in the nation.
