As we all know in an effort to flatten the curve, dentists in AB are currently mandated to provide emergency care only. Emergency care is defined as treatment for significant infection, prolonged bleeding, trauma or pain not controllable by medication.

So… how to avoid dental emergencies during this time?

  1. Good oral care: brush twice a day for 2 minutes, preferably with an electric brush, and floss once a day (check out our previous post for a flossing demo with Mark). Add a mouth rinse like Smart Mouth if you are really keen ;)
  2. Don’t open things with your teeth, or eat really hard foods: Your teeth aren’t there to snap off plastic tags from clothes or rip open packages. Using your teeth for these types of activities can chip or break them, which can lead to pain, sensitivity and tooth decay. Even chewing on ice, toffee, hard candies, or hard bread crusts can cause a tooth to crack.

You are especially vulnerable to breaking a tooth if you have large fillings in your teeth. Studies have shown that if you have a filling that takes up more than half of the width of your tooth, it takes 50% less force to break it. We see this all the time in our practice – someone bites on something the wrong way, and one corner or half of their tooth breaks off… now is not the time to have this happen!

Just doing these two things will help to avoid having an issue while we have a limited ability to help you. We really don’t like having to tell people that their urgent issue is not able to be fixed right now. Believe me, there is nothing we would rather do than fix it, but it isn’t safe at this time due to aerosolization of COVID-19.