An injury to your mouth, teeth, tongue or gums can be a serious cause for concern. While you can’t prevent everything there are a few everyday habits to consider that can reduce the chances or prevent some common oral emergencies.
Try to break bad habits like chewing on ice or nibbling on hard objects like pens and pencils. This also extends to using your teeth as tools. While these things might seem mundane, they can easily cause chips, cracks and fractures in the enamel layer of your teeth.
If you participate in contact sports, you should wear a mouth guard. Your dentist can fit you for a custom mouth guard that is comfortable and allows for easy breathing. These units are much more effective at protecting your teeth, than retail level mouth guards. This is especially true if you have braces!
If you grind your teeth at night on a regular basis it can chip, or even fractures the biting surfaces of one or more teeth. In time it can even lead to TMJ disorder. Your dentist can fit you for a custom night guard, which fits comfortably into your mouth, allowing you to sleep easy and prevent damage from night grinding.
It’s also handy to stock your first aid kit with a few common oral health care items like waxed floss, salt packets and topical oral analgesic. Having these things quickly at hand will help keep you prepared for some common oral emergencies.
If you have questions regarding things you can do to reduce the chances of suffering an oral injury or dental emergency, please feel free to call us at 732-937-9595 to set up an appointment.