Healthy Smiles Family Dental

If you find yourself or a loved one with a broken tooth, don’t panic. There can be a lot of stress from the pain, or even from the uncertainty of what will happen next. At Healthy Smiles Family Dental, located in Salem, Oregon, Dr. Na Xu, D.D.S., and Dr. Mark Thomas, D.M.D. are here to assist you during this turbulent time.   There are many things that might cause a tooth to break. Perhaps you bit or chewed on something too hard. Maybe you fell or experienced an injury that broke your tooth. You could even have a cavity inside the tooth that could cause it to break. Regardless, here are a few tips to reduce your pain while you wait to see the dentist.   -With some warm water, rinse out your mouth, collecting all the broken pieces of the tooth for the dentist to look at. -Use gauze to stop any bleeding. Hold it there for about ten minutes or so, allowing the bleeding to stop. -Use icepacks on the outside of the cheek or lips for 15-minute intervals. This will keep the swelling down. -If...

Dental emergencies happen every day. You’re out playing sports with your friends, you trip and fall, or experience some kind of facial trauma. Your mouth or teeth are in incredible pain, but it's past all regular business hours. Dr. Na Xu, D.D.S. and Dr. Mark Thomas D.M.D. of Healthy Smiles Family Dental in Salem, Oregon are available for dental emergencies.   When suffering a dental emergency, get in contact with us immediately. If for some reason you can’t reach our office, consider going to your local emergency room. There are a few traditional dental emergencies that we can help you with.   -Inexplicable toothache: rinse your mouth thoroughly to make sure there is nothing pressed up against or stuck between the tooth and an adjacent tooth. If this doesn’t help, call us. -Broken or chipped tooth: Rinse out your mouth and try to save as many pieces of the tooth as possible. Apply icepacks in 15-minute cycles to keep the swelling down while on your way to your emergency appointmen...

At Healthy Smiles Family Dental, we are always treating patients who play sports and have suffered a broken or knocked out a tooth. Injuries are going to happen when you play sports and there is no way around it.  However, to help prevent facial injuries, our doctors encourage our patients to invest in a custom mouth guard. We advise our patients to avoid using mouth guards from sporting good and department stores. Store bought mouth guards offer less protection for your teeth because they are bulky, harder to breathe in, and don’t fit properly to your mouth.  When mouth guards don’t fit your mouth, they offer less protection against oral injuries and tooth damage. Regardless of the sport you play, we want all of our patients to wear custom-fitted mouth guards that are designed to fit your mouth and offer maximum protection and comfort. When you’re not playing sports, we encourage our patients to rinse their mouth guard’s and store them in a perforated container to prevent damage.  Dr....