FAQ

Probable cause; this may be the beginning of an inflammation. Such an inflammation may be caused for many reasons, such as tartar beneath your gums.

Treatment: when you are a registered client at our clinic, you may make an immediate appointment with the oral hygienist. She can check the situation and deliberate if an oral hygiene treatment or a dental treatment is the appropriate treatment. In case you have never visited our clinic before, the dentist will look into the situation first.

Probable cause: a nagging, continuous pain may be caused by a cavity. When that cavity is visible, the cause is quite obvious, but when the tooth or molar was filled before, it may be possible that the filling started to leak and the cavity below started to become bigger. In case of pain stabbings it may be due to an irritated nerve due to inflammation.

Treatment: in case of a lingering pain we advise you to make an appointment with your dentist. He or she can repair the area by creating a new filling. In case of the pain stabs sometimes a root canal treatment is mandatory.

Probable cause: there may be a hairline fracture in the enamel that starts to ‘work’ in case of temperature fluctuations. In other words: expanding and shrinking.

Treatment: We advise you to make an appointment with your dentist to find out if he or she can detect the hairline fracture. Until then you should avoid fluctuations in temperature as much as possible. And, do not open your mouth when there is a cold wind blowing outside and also consume food and drink at body temperature.

Probable cause: you may have an inflamed nerve of a tooth or molar. The formation of gas in the root canal causes swelling and pressure from the inside out which is experienced as pain when your teeth touch something hot.

Treatment: when you experience pain, you may take pain medication and we advise you to make an appointment at our clinic as soon as possible. When in pain you receive preferential treatment in our clinic. But even when you do not feel pain in case of a chipped tooth, you should make an appointment because the tooth or molar always has to be restored.

Treatment: When a tooth has fallen out entirely it can only be put back when you are at the dentist’s within the hour. The tooth should be kept in milk until then. When this limited time frame has passed, the tooth cannot be put back. However, please do call your dentist or emergency dentist to hear what actions may be taken. In case you have ‘just’ loose teeth and other injuries, please go to the ER of the nearest hospital first. Please have your injuries treated first and ask them then if they will make an overview picture of your teeth. This is a panoramic picture that allows your dentist to see at a glance if there is further damage to your teeth.

Treatment: Please make an appointment with us as soon as possible. Even if you do not experience pain at all, a tooth or molar that carried a filling or was equipped with a crown, is very vulnerable. If this happens during the night, you may however wait until the next day. So there is n need to call the clinic or emergency dentist immediately after it happened. But when you experience acute pain, you may call at once. When a sharp ridge has occurred because of what happened, you may seal this with a piece of (chewed) sugar free chewing gum. You may also do this when the entire filling is lost; in this way you isolate the tooth or molar with gum. Please avoid chewing on that particular site and also too cold and too hot food and drinks.

Treatment: when this happens during the day, you may call our clinic. When it happens at night or during the weekend, you may just wait until the first day our clinic is open. You may try to tighten the screw yourself. When this starts to bleed, you should avoid all further actions. Refrain from chewing with the implant. In case the implant has become loose altogether and you can easily remove it, please do so and seal the sharp area in your mouth with a piece of chewed sugar free chewing gum. However, when you experience severe bleeding, do not wait until the next day, but please call our clinic immediately so you can visit us, or the emergency dentist.

Treatment: continuous bleeding after an extraction can go on for hours, but is seldom life threatening. To avoid becoming nauseated, you should not swallow the blood but spit it out. And please so not rinse your mouth, because by doing so you will keep the wound open and the bleeding will continue. To stop the bleeding, you may make a tampon by rolling up tightly a paper handkerchief or a piece of kitchen towel until you get a diameter f about 1 to 2 centimeters. You may make a few at the time. You may hold this tampon in place by clenching your jaws for at least one hour. You may also hold it in place with your fingers. However, when you experience severe swelling of your check and or part of your mouth, you may call you GP or visit the ER of the nearest hospital.

Please note: never ever take pain medication which contains (acetyl) salicylic acid when experiencing swelling or bleeding. These type of pain killers cause your blood to coagulate very slowly which causes longer bleeding. Paracetamol does not influence this coagulation process, so you can choose this. Also smoking and alcohol slow down the coagulation process and should be avoided too. And please to not keep probing the wound with your tongue no matter how tempting this is! In case you use medication on a regular basis, please tell you dentist before extraction.

Treatment: this will not hurt you at all, but it is an extreme uncomfortable situation. You may temporarily fix this by drying the dentures thoroughly and then glue it together with so called super glue. After that you should let the dentures dry (outside your mouth) for fifteen minutes. It goes without saying you’d better not eat an apple or a baguette or something like that. If the metal part is fractured, you will not be able to repair this temporarily yourself. You may call your dentist during office hours to make an appointment to have your dentures repaired.

Are you afraid of the dentist? Well, you should know you are not the only one! Children as well as adults can be extremely afraid to visit the dentist. When you are an adult, there may be various causes:

• Bad experiences in your childhood with the school dentist
• Sound of the drill which is associated with pain
• Fear that the ‘probe’ will rip out something during the check-up which will cause uncontrollable pain.

We address those three most common fears here below:

In the old days you just had to sit in the dentist chair, open your mouth and the dentist did what he tough had to be done. Without any explanation. For a lot of children this has been such a traumatic experience that they never got over it, not even in their adult lives. First of all; for all treatment anesthetics are available, so experiencing pain is not even an option. Besides that we never ever just start a treatment (or check-up) without explain first what needs to be done to fix things. On the lamp above the chair, you will find a small mirror which allows you to see what happens in your mouth. If you do not want to see it, we can turn this mirror in a different direction. So, you will have all the time to prepare for a treatment, you may follow the treatment if you wish to do so and again: experiencing pain is absolutely not necessary.

2. Dental drilling equipment in the olden days was a non-adjustable drill with one speed without water cooling. That did not only make a lot of noise, it smelt awful too. Our modern dental equipment cannot be compared in whatever way with that. Water cooled, adjustable dental drills do make a sound, but we work with it much faster and precise. And when you would like to have an anesthetic in case of a filling that has to be done, you are in good company; almost everybody asks for it!

Extremely fearful clients

Being fearful of a situation in which one holds no control of, in this case the dentist – may lead to extreme delay of visiting the dentist. Sometimes even 20 years or longer. However, there comes a time when a visit to the dentist can no longer be avoided. Toothache may disappear sometimes, but that is always short lived and the recurring pain will be much worse. In our clinic we are equipped for treating fearful clients. They may vary from a little afraid to almost phobic. Every client, afraid or not, get an extended explanation about the treatment needed. Anesthetics are always an option so you do not have to experience a shred of pain. It never gets fun, but sacrifice your teeth to fear is almost a sin. Again; almost all treatments can be carried out without pain and we will never treat you without explaining every step we take during a treatment. We understand your fear and handle it extremely carefully.