Emergency Dentist in Houston: Same-Day Care

Seen in Midtown Houston, Saturday hours: Book an appointment  ·  (713) 322-7474  ·  Emergency Dental Care in Houston

Call First, Then Come In

Phone us before you drive over. It takes a minute, and it means the chair, the doctor and the X-ray you need are ready when you arrive instead of being worked out at the front desk while you sit there hurting.

We are at 106 W Gray St in Midtown, a few minutes from Downtown, Montrose, River Oaks, the Museum District and the Texas Medical Center. We are open Monday through Saturday. Outside those hours the same number, (713) 322-7474, reaches the on-call doctor.

Some things should not come to us at all. Go to the nearest emergency room, or call 911, if you have trouble breathing or swallowing, facial swelling that is spreading quickly or crossing your eye line, bleeding that has not slowed after 15 minutes of firm pressure, a fever above 102F with dental pain, or a facial injury involving loss of consciousness or a possible broken jaw. The closest ER is Memorial Hermann at the Texas Medical Center, about ten minutes from Midtown.

The Emergencies We See Most, and What To Do First

A severe toothache. Rinse with warm water, floss gently to clear anything wedged between the teeth, and take an over-the-counter pain reliever; Mayo Clinic's first-aid guidance is the same. Do not hold aspirin against the gum, which burns the tissue without helping the tooth. Pain that lasts more than a day, wakes you at night, or comes with swelling is a same-day call, and the exam and X-ray tell us whether the cause is a cavity, a crack, an abscess or an exposed root.

A broken or chipped tooth. Save any fragments, avoid chewing on that side, and cover a sharp edge with sugar-free gum or dental wax if it is cutting your tongue. Cold sensitivity means dentin or nerve is exposed, and the sooner it is covered, the more of the tooth we can usually keep.

Swelling or an abscess. This one does not get to wait. A pimple-like bump on the gum, a swollen face, a bad taste, or fever mean infection, and antibiotics alone only quiet it; the source has to be treated or it returns. Our endodontists handle the emergency root canal side of this in the same building, and if the tooth cannot be saved, extraction is same-day.

If any symptom on the ER list in the section above is present, the hospital comes first. Everything else, call us.

A Knocked-Out Tooth Is a Race

A knocked-out adult tooth can often be saved, and the clock is the whole game. The American Association of Endodontists' guidance is what we follow:

• Pick the tooth up by the crown, the part you chew with. Do not touch the root.

• If it is dirty, rinse it gently with water. No scrubbing, no soap, no wrapping it in tissue.

• Best of all: press it gently back into its socket and close your teeth slowly to hold it. If you cannot, keep it in milk or tucked inside your cheek so it stays moist.

• Call us on the way. The best results come within 30 minutes, but a tooth can sometimes be saved after an hour or more, so come in regardless.

A baby tooth is the exception: do not push it back in. Bring the child and the tooth, and we will check the adult tooth underneath.

What We Can Fix the Same Day

Most emergencies leave our office resolved or stabilized the same visit.

A broken or lost filling or crown gets a temporary repair that stops the pain and protects the tooth while the permanent fix is made. A broken denture is repaired in-house, usually the same day. An infected tooth gets its emergency root canal started by our endodontists rather than a referral across town, and a tooth that cannot be saved comes out the same visit, with the replacement conversation starting when you are ready.

Nitrous oxide is included in the treatment fee if you are anxious, and IV sedation is available. Being multispecialty is the practical advantage in an emergency: the endodontist, the oral surgeon and the restorative dentist are one hallway apart, so nobody hands you a phone number and wishes you luck.

What Can Wait a Day or Two, and What Cannot

Gums that bleed when you brush or floss are usually early gum disease. That deserves an appointment soon, not an emergency visit tonight. Bleeding that does not slow after 15 minutes of firm pressure is different, and it is on the ER list above.

A mouth sore is usually self-limiting. One that has not healed after two weeks needs an exam, and that is a rule worth taking seriously, because it is also how oral cancers get caught early.

A tooth that hurts only when you bite down may be cracked. Do not test it, do not chew on it, and do not book it for next week: call the same day, because a crack that spreads below the gumline turns a crown into an extraction.

When in doubt, call and describe it. Telling you honestly that something can wait costs us nothing, and it is how you know to believe us when we say come in now.

Paying for Emergency Treatment

You get the cost of treatment before we start, not after. An emergency exam tells us what is actually wrong, and you decide from there.

We file claims with most PPO plans as a courtesy, and we verify your benefits before treatment so your share is in writing rather than a guess. Coverage depends on your individual policy, so we check yours rather than quoting an average.

If you are uninsured or the treatment is more than you expected, we finance through Cherry, Affirm and Sunbit, and our annual membership plan keeps care affordable without insurance. What an emergency visit costs depends on what the exam finds: a temporary replacement of a broken or lost filling or crown and a simple extraction sit at the affordable end, while a root canal is a bigger treatment with a fee to match. You get today's exact figure before anything starts.

The two emergencies we treat most, tooth out or nerve out, now have their own same-day pages: emergency tooth extraction and emergency root canal.