Emergency Dentist in Bohle Plains

If you are reading this in pain, ring first and read afterwards. We hold time aside each day at Bohle Plains for urgent problems, and the earlier in the day you call, the more of it is still available.

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Go to a Hospital, Not a Dentist, If

Some things that feel like dental problems are not ones a dental chair can safely deal with. Do not wait for us, and do not wait until morning, if there is:

• Facial swelling, particularly if it is spreading towards the eye or down into the neck.
• Any difficulty breathing or swallowing.
• Bleeding that will not stop with firm pressure.
• An injury involving more than the teeth, such as a blow to the head, a suspected broken jaw, or loss of consciousness.

Go to your nearest hospital emergency department, or call 000. A spreading dental infection is a medical emergency, and people underestimate it because it started as a toothache.

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First Aid Before You Get Here

Knocked-out adult tooth. Minutes matter. Hold it by the crown, not the root. Rinse gently in milk or saline if it is dirty, and do not scrub. Put it back in the socket if you can and hold it there. If you cannot, keep it in milk or in the person’s own saliva inside their cheek. Ring on the way. Do not replant a child’s baby tooth.

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 swelling. If a sharp edge is cutting your tongue, dental wax or sugar-free gum over it will do until you are seen.

Toothache. Over-the-counter pain relief as directed on the packet, and a cold compress. Never hold an aspirin against the gum: it burns the tissue and does nothing for the tooth.

Lost filling or crown. Keep the crown, do not glue it back with anything from a hardware shop, and avoid chewing on that side.

Bleeding after an extraction. Bite firmly on clean gauze or a rolled handkerchief for twenty minutes without checking it. If it soaks through repeatedly, ring us or go to an emergency department.

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Why Antibiotics Alone Are Not the Answer

People often get a course of antibiotics somewhere, feel better, and think it is over. Antibiotics can knock an infection back, but they do not treat the tooth that caused it. A nerve that has died stays dead, and the infection generally comes back, usually at a less convenient moment and often worse.

At Bohle Plains the tooth itself can be dealt with. Root canal treatment is done in house, extractions including surgical ones are done here, and cone beam CT imaging on site means an abscess or a cracked root is diagnosed properly rather than guessed at. Complex surgical cases are handled at this clinic too, rather than referred to Brisbane.

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What Happens at the Appointment

The first job is to get you comfortable. After that we work out what is actually going on, using an examination and imaging rather than a guess, and tell you what the options are.

Sometimes the whole thing is settled that day. Sometimes the sensible plan is to relieve the pain and stabilise things now and do the definitive work at a booked appointment, which is a legitimate answer rather than a stalling tactic. Either way you are told which one you are getting, and what it costs, before it happens.

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Being Seen in Bohle Plains

Both Townsville clinics hold urgent time, so if one is full the other may not be. Ring the closer one first and say what is happening.

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What It Costs

Nobody can quote a dental emergency over the phone, because the fee depends on what is wrong. What we can tell you is that you will be told what the appointment involves and given a written quote before any treatment, emergency or not. We claim health fund rebates on the spot through HICAPS, we see DVA card holders, and payment plans are available. This clinic also accepts Queensland Health vouchers.

If money is the reason you are hesitating, ring anyway and say so. Settling the pain and planning the repair are two different conversations, and the first one should not wait on the second.