Why aren't there any emergency dental offices open on the holidays?

Question

I know it is horrible to want people to work during the holidays, but I am in pain.

Why I can go to an Emergency Room for health reasons, take my cat to the vet ER for cat issues, but remain out of luck for dental reasons because they are closed from two days before Christmas until two days after Christmas? Surely dentists are just as important and needed, but they take 5 days off for a holiday? (They only perscribed 3 days worth of pain killers.)

** I had a wisdom tooth and a molar removed on Thursday, and I am still in extreme pain and my face is swollen. I have followed every bit of the dentists’ instructions including ice packs, elevating my head when I sleep, salt water, antibiotics etc., but the only way I would be able to get any help would be to call a dentist at home. It shouldn't have to be that way.

P.S. Anyone know where to find clove oil? The assistant said it would help with pain, but no drug store has it.

Edit- This is in no way intended to be rude toward dentists.

:)

Dear Dentist,

Please read carefully before being rude to people with questions. I did not ask why my family dentist is not open on the holidays. I asked why the dental profession does not have emergency offices like other medical professionals. My family doctor and vet are not open either, but there are offices I can use if necessary.

I had a number that would feasibly pull my dentist from home, but I did not want to on the holidays (which was why I was hoping for a facility that was already open.)

And yes, I know what swollen is. It is the sore area around my jaw making the right side of my face bigger than the left and making it difficult speak.

Extreme pain isn’t an emergency? Say that when you or your child cannot talk or participate in the holidays.

Please, next time enjoy your holiday. As it would be an insult to you to help someone on your day off, you should not take time away from your holiday to make a person in pain feel worse; you do your job well enough M-F.

Answer 1

You can use a regular emergency room for dental problems, especially if you only need enough pain medicine to get you through a day or two. If you have a serious emergency that requires attention, some hospitals have some dentists or oral surgeons on call and they can get them in to see you.

Otherwise, no dentist can work alone while treating patients so this means he/she would have to have at least one other person there with them and that person would have to be paid. Face it - NOBODY wants to go to the dentist on Christmas and the odds that you would get enough money to pay the staff person for hanging around are somewhere between slim and none.

Having said that, I will also suggest that you might be able to find your dentist through an answering service or even the phone book. I saw a patient last night (Saturday) who called me at home. She brought me a bag of sugar coated walnuts to say thank you. I'd rather sit at home with my wife and relax than sit in an office just waiting and wondering if the phone will ever ring. So would you.

Answer 2

Every professional Dentist has a Partnership with another Dentist, whether private or not. They do each others dental work, and cover each others emergency cases. Your Dental work must be done immediately, to avoid a serious infection, not to mention all the Pain you must be going through. If your Dentist is not professional enough to be able to fill your needs immediately, then I would suggest finding a new one. The longest I've ever waited for an emergency appointment was just short of 48 hours, but that was for dental surgery, not just a replacing a filling.

Answer 3

I'm a dentist.

I have news for you: your family dentist, like your family physician, does not exist to be available to you at your beckoned call. Like every other professional, we have working hours and non-working hours. Emergency rooms (and emergency vets), on the other hand, exist to handle emergencies. It's absolutely ridiculous to compare us with a hospital's emergency department!

Do not call the doctor at his home unless he gave you his number for the purpose of doing so. It is incredibly rude and profoundly disrespectful to him as a person. If he intended for patients to contact him outside of business hours, he would have provided you with a number to call. Most dentists have some sort of answering service to handle these things, where either the service itself or a dental assistant will handle the question.

Depending on how the wisdom tooth was extracted, pain and swelling can actualy increase for up to three to four days before it decreases. You're still within the range of normal.

Moreover, are you actually swollen? If I had a nickel for every time a patient claimed to be swollen when they had exceedingly mild or absolutely no swelling to speak of, I'd never have to pick up a drill ever again.

If you are truly (and significantly) swollen, and if the swelling continues to increase tomorrow, and if you're having difficulty opening your mouth and/or swallowing, then you should make a trip to the ER. You may be developing an infection. Although fairly rare after extractions, they certainly do occur--especially when there was an underlying infection prior to a surgical extraction.

If you're a smoker, you're also more likely to get dry-socket, which is significantly painful. Smokers, whether they follow the doctor's instructions or not, are more prone to dry-socket. Dry-socket is not a dental emergency. Neither is pain, in my book.

In general, more than two days post-op, you should not be putting ice on your face. Moist heat is appropriate (it dilates blood vessels and increases blood flow to the area which facilitates healing).

If your problem doesn't warrant a trip to the ER, you should bite the bullet and wait until Tuesday. By then, some dental office should be open.

In your defense, however, I will say this: there are a lot of doctors out there who are very miserly when it comes to prescribing pain pills. Your doctor seems to be one of them. You might bring up this point next time you see him. When I extract teeth, I always provide patients with at least 5 days-worth of Vicodin.

Some doctors are such ******* that they send adult patients home with three days of Tylenol #3. I prescribe Tylenol #3 for children.

Answer 4

Go to the emergency room at a local hospital!