Have you ever had a dental problem while you have been away from home?
For a lot of people the mere thought of having a problem is enough to get them in a flap. While we make every effort to look after you and produce a predictable mouth, there is always a small chance of something happening to your teeth while you are away.
Here are a few tips to ease those worries and calm those nerves.
Before you go on holiday
- Try not to embark on any large courses of treatment directly before you go on your travels.
Your Practice membership insurance covers you for emergency treatment while you are away from home, abroad or in the UK. If you need dental assistance whilst away, then keep all receipts. Contact the practice by telephone or email, so that we can assist you with registering your claim.
- If you are aware of problems in the run up to your holiday, then get it checked at your dentist, before you go. Quite often things that have been worrying you are easily fixed.
- If you have lots of fillings and you are worried what you might do if you break one, you could purchase a temporary filling kit. These temporary filling kits are available from Boots and other high street stores.
Things you can do while away on holiday
Sometimes things can happen while you are away, such as a lost filling or a loose crown. If this happens, you do not always get toothache and often it can wait till you return from you holidays for it to be properly fixed at the dentist. Of course it depends on how long you are away for, but a lot of things can survive with few problems for a week or two.
Here are some tips to keep things behaving until you return.
- If an old filling falls out, and the remaining tooth is sharp on your tongue, then it is acceptable to use a small Emory board to smooth the rough edge. Enamel is razor sharp when it breaks and a very light smoothing is often all that is required. This is not suggesting that you file the tooth into oblivion, but a gentle edge smoothing is acceptable.
- If a tooth or filling breaks, the tooth can be sensitive to temperature as the underlying dentine is exposed to the mouth. It is very useful to have some desensitising toothpaste with you, such as Colgate Sensitive Pro-Relief or Sensodyne Rapid-Relief. We have many free samples if you would like some to take with your. Simply rubbing this on the sensitive areas and leaving it on for 10 minutes can be beneficial. It may not remove sensitivity completely, but if applied a number of times, it can make eating much easier.
- If you have a gum infection, sometimes a good thorough rinse out with warm salty water or Corsodyl mouthwash, will soothe and disinfect things enough to help your body to heal. This is particular affective with wisdom tooth infections.
- While on holiday, we all tend to drink a lot more fizzy drinks, juice and maybe even wine! These are all acidic and may make your teeth feel particularly sensitive to cold or sweet. Yet again the de-sensitising toothpastes are particularly good, if rubbed on and left for a while. Reducing the acids that you consume and drinking water instead will help too.
For further advice we would always recommend seeking professional dental advice for your specific dental problems.
