Dr. Jerry Williams of Urgent Care 24/7 discusses toothaches.

Dr. Williams is a people doctor and a medical doctor. He is the founder and owner of Urgent Care 247, and he is also the founder of Dental Care 247. The clinic sees a lot of dental emergencies and a very common problem and he wanted to talk to you about how to best handle it.

First of all, if you're watching this video, you're probably in that situation where your loved one has a toothache. Dr. Williams hopes this information is helpful.

First thing we need to do is assess the situation and try to find out the etiology or the cause of the pain. Is it an infection? Is it from an abscess, for example? Or is there just a cracked tooth because sometimes trauma can cause it to be either from biting down on something hard like an olive pit is a common thing where people are eating a salad that has an olive in it, there's not supposed to have a pit so on the olive and they bite down on it and actually fracture or break the tooth, or is it from neglect where they've got cavities, I've got decay of the tooth itself and subsequent infection.

So there's lots of causes of tooth pain. If you're having a toothache, it's really important that we get your pain under control. One of the things you can do is use topical lidocaine and apply it to the base of the tooth. If you can just get lidocaine gel that can be used orally, those kinds of topical anesthetics are made for dental pain and apply it right at the base of the tooth right where it's hurting the most, that can be helpful. Also taking ibuprofen or naproxen sodium, or Tylenol or Acetaminophen. Those can also be extremely helpful, but it's going to be really important you get to the dentist right away so they can do an X-ray or an examination to see what's going on in there.

Is it a fractured tooth? Is it an infection because an infection you're going to need to get on antibiotics right away to help clean that infection up, clear that infection up and hopefully save the tooth. So if you're having a toothache, look for the CETA medicine which is an analgesic to take by mouth and non-steroidals such as ibuprofen or naproxen sodium, and the topical anesthetics that you can apply right to the base of the tooth where the pain is coming from and then get your closest medical care or preferably dental care. If you can't find the dentist who can see you right away. You can do a Telehealth visit. You can certainly find a medical provider who can count a prescription and you can take over the counter pain medications for pain. If you are having a lot of pain you need to go get seen right away either by an emergency dentist or a dentist who's willing to see you after hours if it's if it's not during regular hours or get seen at an urgent care center or as a last resort in an emergency room.

‍