Urgent Care

What to Do in a Dental Emergency in Bergen County

Emergency Guide·July 24, 2026·5 min read·Englewood Dentistry, 334 Grand Ave

If you're dealing with a dental emergency right now: call us at (201) 541-8111. We offer same-week emergency appointments at 334 Grand Ave in Englewood, and the front desk will tell you what to do before you get here. If you have facial swelling spreading toward your eye or neck, trouble breathing or swallowing, or bleeding that won't stop — skip the dentist and go to the ER first.

For everything else, here's what to do in the first hour, emergency by emergency.

Knocked-out tooth: you have about an hour

This is the one where minutes genuinely matter. A permanent tooth reimplanted within 30–60 minutes has a real chance of reattaching. Longer than that, the odds drop fast.

Pick the tooth up by the crown — the white chewing part. Never the root.
If it's dirty, rinse it gently with water. Don't scrub, don't use soap.
Best option: push it gently back into the socket and bite on a clean cloth to hold it there.
Can't do that? Drop it in a cup of milk — not water, which damages the root cells — and get to us.

A baby tooth is different: don't reimplant it, but do call us so we can check the area.

Cracked or broken tooth

Rinse with warm water, save any broken pieces, and use a cold compress on your cheek for swelling. A small chip can usually wait a few days; a crack that hurts when you bite or is sensitive to hot and cold means the nerve may be involved — that's a call-today situation. Left alone, a cracked tooth that could have been saved with a crown can turn into one that needs a root canal or an extraction.

Severe toothache

A toothache that wakes you up at night, throbs with your pulse, or comes with a bad taste in your mouth usually means infection — and infections don't resolve on their own. Until we can see you: warm salt-water rinses, over-the-counter pain relievers as directed on the label, cold compress outside the cheek. Do not put aspirin directly on the gum; it chemically burns the tissue.

Lost crown or filling

Not usually a same-day crisis, but don't sit on it — the exposed tooth is soft and can crack or decay quickly. Keep the crown if you have it (we can often re-cement it), avoid chewing on that side, and dental cement from any pharmacy can cover the tooth for a day or two. Skip the online advice about super glue. It doesn't work and makes our job harder.

Abscess or swelling

A pimple-like bump on the gum, swelling in the cheek or jaw, fever, or a persistent bad taste points to an abscess — a pocket of infection. This is the emergency people most often underestimate. An abscess will not drain and heal on its own, and the infection can spread. Call us the day you notice it. If swelling is spreading toward your eye or down your neck, or swallowing becomes difficult, go to the ER — that's beyond what any dental office should handle first.

ER or dentist? The 10-second rule

ER: breathing or swallowing problems, spreading facial swelling, uncontrolled bleeding, possible broken jaw, head injury.
Dentist:everything involving the tooth itself. The ER can prescribe antibiotics and painkillers, but almost no ER can actually repair, reimplant, or extract a tooth — you'll be referred to a dentist anyway, with an ER bill on top.

Why patients across Bergen County call us first

We hold time in the schedule for urgent cases, so a real emergency doesn't wait two weeks behind routine cleanings. Patients reach us quickly from Fort Lee, Teaneck, and Tenafly — we're right off Route 4 on Grand Ave. When you call, you talk to a person who tells you what to do immediately and when you'll be seen. Our emergency dental care page covers what happens at the visit itself, and our contact page has directions and hours.

Common Questions

Dental emergencies, answered.

Should I go to the ER for a dental emergency?

Go to the ER if you have trouble breathing or swallowing, facial swelling that's spreading toward your eye or neck, uncontrolled bleeding, or a possible jaw fracture. For everything else — knocked-out tooth, cracked tooth, severe toothache, lost crown — a dentist can treat the actual problem. ERs can give you antibiotics and pain relief, but most can't repair a tooth.

How fast can I be seen for a dental emergency in Englewood?

Englewood Dentistry offers same-week emergency appointments, and we keep time in the schedule for urgent cases. Call (201) 541-8111 and describe what happened — the front desk will tell you exactly when we can see you and what to do in the meantime.

Can a knocked-out tooth be saved?

Yes, but time matters more than anything else. A permanent tooth reimplanted within 30–60 minutes has the best chance of surviving. Pick it up by the crown (not the root), rinse it gently without scrubbing, and either place it back in the socket or keep it in milk until you reach us.

What helps a severe toothache until I can see a dentist?

Rinse with warm salt water, use over-the-counter pain relievers as directed, and apply a cold compress to the outside of your cheek. Don't put aspirin directly on the gum — it burns the tissue. A toothache severe enough to keep you up at night usually means infection, so call us rather than waiting for it to pass. It usually doesn't.