HOW TO AVOID DENTAL EMERGENCIES

Across Sunnyvale and the Bay Area, we’ve been sheltering in place, and I’ll admit - this is new for me! For some of our patients in Sunnyvale, it’s business as usual, except they've been working from home rather than the office. Others, including ourselves, have had to make major changes to their routines. I’ve loved reading everyone’s tips on how to use this time to keep routine schedules and to do meaningful things, and I wanted to chime in with tips of my own.

As we do our part to #flattenthecurve, many patients have reached out to ask -  what can they do at home to avoid dental emergencies?

1. Avoid chewing anything excessively hard or crunchy, like ice and popcorn kernels, that could cause your teeth to break or chip.
2. If you have habits that you turn to during stressful moments, try to stop them - avoid chewing on objects like pens and nails. 
3. During this time of added stress and uncertainty, you may be grinding your teeth more than usual. Make sure you wear your night guard if you have one.
4. Brush and floss your teeth to keep them as healthy as possible. Use fluoridated toothpaste to brush your teeth twice a day for two minutes each time. Floss your teeth daily.
5. If you’ve been seen recently and know you need dental work, exercise caution when chewing. Cavities weaken your teeth, and we want to avoid traumatizing or fracturing them.
6. If you experience any dental pain, swelling, or infections, contact our office. Let us help you as we all work together to ease the burden on traditional emergency rooms.

We are here for you, your families, and our Sunnyvale community during these unexpected times. We remain as reachable and committed to you and your oral health as before - we are available via email and text (in addition to traditional phone calls). We are also available for teledentistry consultations to help you with your concerns. If you have any questions, please reach out to our office.
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Good luck sheltering in place, and stay healthy. We’ll see you soon!