In short
An emergency dentist treats dental problems that cannot wait for a routine appointment: a severe toothache, a broken, chipped or knocked out tooth, a lost crown or filling, or localized swelling. Form + Function Dental Aesthetics in Las Vegas holds time open every day we are in for same day dental emergencies, Monday through Thursday from 8:00am to 5:00pm. Call (702) 805-1117 and describe what is happening rather than waiting for an online form. Some symptoms are not dental emergencies at all. Trouble breathing or swallowing, swelling spreading toward the eye or down the neck, bleeding that will not stop, or a blow to the head need 911 and an emergency room, not a dental chair.
A dental emergency is not a category of treatment. It is a day that has gone wrong: a tooth that broke on a fork, a crown that came off in a piece of bread, pain that has stopped you sleeping. What you need in that hour is somebody to pick up the phone, tell you whether it is urgent, and give you a time. Form + Function Dental Aesthetics keeps room in the schedule for exactly that, at 4205 S. Grand Canyon Dr. #19 in Summerlin, next to Target at the Grand Canyon Shoppes.
Call 911 first if any of this is happening
This is the part to read before anything else, because a dental appointment is the wrong answer to it. Go to an emergency room, or call 911, if you have:
- Trouble breathing or trouble swallowing
- Swelling that is spreading toward your eye or down your neck
- Bleeding that will not stop
- A blow to the head, or a jaw you cannot close
Swelling from a dental infection can involve the airway, and that is a hospital problem rather than a dental one. If you are not sure which of the two you are looking at, treat it as the medical emergency. Nobody will think you overreacted.
What counts as a dental emergency?
These are what the same day appointments are held open for:
- A severe toothache, especially one that wakes you up or does not settle with over the counter pain relief
- A broken, cracked or chipped tooth
- A tooth that has been knocked out
- A crown, a filling or a veneer that has come off
- Localized swelling or an abscess with no breathing difficulty
- A tooth loosened by a knock
- Something sharp cutting your tongue or your cheek
What to do in the first few minutes
What you do before you arrive can change what is possible when you get here.
- Knocked out tooth: pick it up by the crown, never by the root. If it is dirty, rinse it briefly in milk or saline rather than scrubbing it. Put it back in the socket if you can and hold it there. If you cannot, keep it in milk or in your own saliva and call us straight away. Time matters more here than with anything else on this list.
- Broken or chipped tooth: keep any pieces, rinse your mouth with warm water, and use a cold compress on the outside of the face for the swelling.
- Lost crown or filling: keep the crown. Do not glue it back with household adhesive. Avoid chewing on that side until you are seen.
- Toothache: rinse with warm salt water and take the pain relief you would normally take. Do not hold aspirin against the gum, which burns the tissue rather than helping the tooth.
- Bleeding after an extraction elsewhere: bite firmly on clean gauze for fifteen minutes without checking it every minute.
How does a same day emergency visit work?
You call, you describe the symptom, and the front desk decides with you whether it is a today problem. If it is, you are given a time rather than told to come and wait. Dr. Kevin sees one patient at a time, so an emergency slot is a real appointment in a real room, not a gap between two other people. You will be told what the treatment costs before it starts, which is the same rule that applies to every other kind of visit here.
What does a broken or chipped tooth need?
It depends on how much tooth is gone and whether the nerve is involved. A small chip is often repaired with composite bonding in a single visit. A larger break usually needs a crown, which Dr. Kevin can often design and fit the same day. A break that reaches the nerve needs the nerve treated first, and root canal treatment is referred to an endodontist before the tooth is rebuilt here. The first appointment is about getting you out of pain and protecting what is left.
What does a severe toothache mean?
Pain that is sharp with cold and gone in seconds is a different problem from pain that throbs on its own, keeps you awake, or hurts to bite on. The second group is more often an infected nerve or an abscess, and it does not resolve by itself, it goes quiet and comes back worse. That is worth an appointment even on a day when it happens to be behaving.
When we are open, and what to do when we are not
The studio is open Monday through Thursday, 8:00am to 5:00pm, and closed Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Same day emergency time is held on the days we are in. If something happens outside those hours, call (702) 805-1117 and leave your name, your number and what is going on, and the team will get back to you. If you cannot wait that long, an urgent care clinic or a hospital emergency room can manage pain and infection until we can see you, and we would rather you did that than sat it out.
Do you have to be an existing patient?
No. Call and tell us what is happening. If we can help you today we will say so, and if the right answer is a specialist or an emergency room we will say that instead.
