According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, there are about 4,500 injuries every Halloween. These can send people to the ER because of everything from pumpkin-carving activities to falls and much worse. But what about oral health? Teeth do not go unscathed on this super-sweet and spooky holiday. The need for emergency dentistry treatment spikes just after October 31, leading to a need for restorative dental care and so much more.
Fix the Side Effects from the Sweet Stuff
You may have overdone it eating candy on Halloween, but tooth decay doesn’t set in overnight. Rest assured, if you are noshing on sweets all month long without good at-home dental care, you could put yourself at risk for a cavity by Halloween night. But what your dentist usually sees after Halloween are patients who have pulled out an existing filling and need a repair.
Tooth-colored fillings that have been loosened or lost because of taffy, caramel, gummy worms, or other extremely chewy candies can often be replaced by another tooth-colored filling. Some patients, though, have damaged their tooth so dramatically that a more robust repair like a crown is needed to get it back in good working condition.
Correct Major Dental Damage
Chewy candy can pull out tooth-colored fillings, and they can do the same to existing porcelain crowns. Now, enter hard candy and the problem becomes even more complex. Grown-ups who raid their trick-or-treater’s stash or simply can’t help themselves in the office candy bowl often regret their choice to give in to temptation.
Lollipops, hard candy, gumballs, jawbreakers, candy apples, and all their tasty but dangerous cousins are surefire ways to crack a tooth, destroy a dental restoration, or damage cosmetic dentistry. Biting down on these super-hard substances is a guaranteed path to destruction and a need for professional dental care from your Hampton dentist. Anticipate the need for a porcelain crown to correct what’s broken. Thankfully, your Hampton dentist offers same-day crowns for a quick, secure, natural-looking repair.
Stop Tooth Pain
A toothache is a miserable state of being. Some people even get fevers, dizzy, and lightheaded with this kind of pain – but symptoms like that are a sign that there’s serious activity going on within your mouth. Anyone who already suffers from tooth pain should abstain from Halloween candy that makes it worse – sensitivity to sweet and sour and hot and cold will heighten every sensation and not in a good way.
When pain doesn’t go away, even if you’ve given yourself what you think is enough time to recover after a super-indulgent Halloween, it’s a sign that something is wrong and you need your emergency dentist to fix what’s happening and stop the discomfort. Some dental care needs are not obvious, but the symptoms are there if you acknowledge them. Just remember – dental problems never go away on their own. You need the help of a dentist to give you the dental care you need and eliminate pain.
Whether it’s Halloween night, the day before, the day after, or any other day, if you have a dental problem, contact your emergency dentist at Smiles by the Sea in Hampton, NH.