Toothache & Abscess Relief in Bethlehem, PA

Always About Smiles treats toothaches and abscesses at our Bethlehem, PA dental office, usually the same day you call. I find what is causing the pain, settle it at that first appointment, and then plan the repair that keeps the tooth. Call (610) 868-9928 to be given a time.

A toothache is a symptom, and the point of the first appointment is finding what is behind it. I examine, take an x-ray where one is needed, and use a fiber optic light to read the tooth from the side. Teeth with deep fractures that suddenly spread are one of the most frequent dental emergencies, and a crack that no x-ray shows will often show up under that light.

Extended availability — never wait several days or weeks with a toothache. That is my own standing instruction to the front desk, and it is why Mary Lou and Gina keep slots open rather than filling the day to the edges. Patients drive in from Easton for that, and it is the whole reason the arrangement exists.

An infected tooth is the hardest one to numb, and I'll be straight with you: ordinary local anesthetic did not work reliably where there was a dental infection such as an abscess. Buffering the anesthetic before it goes in changes that, because it brings the solution closer to your body's own neutral pH, for a rapid onset with profound numbing. It is the reason I took the trouble to add it.

An abscess is a pocket of infection at the root of a tooth or in the gum beside it, and it is what causes the deep throbbing ache, the swelling and the pressure that eases when you sit up. It needs treatment rather than waiting out. I drain and settle the infection first, and the tooth is dealt with once you are comfortable.

The pain sometimes settles down, but that is not the same as the cause going away — a nerve that stops hurting has often stopped rather than healed. That is worth knowing because people cancel appointments on a good day. If the ache has settled, keep the appointment anyway and let me see what is actually there.

The first visit is quoted before it starts: the examination, the x-ray if one is needed, and the treatment that settles the pain. If the tooth then needs a root canal or a crown, I give you those figures separately and up front rather than rolling them together. Financing is available, and paying by cash in advance carries a 5% discount.

Sometimes, and not always, because antibiotics knock down an infection without treating what caused it. Where there's swelling or the infection has spread into the tissue, they help me get the tooth comfortable enough to work on. Where the problem is a cracked or dying nerve, treating the tooth is what actually resolves it.

No. A toothache can come from a deep cavity, a cracked filling, a crack in the tooth, gum trouble beside the tooth, or a tooth under too much biting pressure — and several of those are dealt with far more simply than that. I work to the least amount of dental work that will actually solve it.

Usually, yes, and saving it is where I start. Comfortable calming treatment to get you out of pain fast, with emphasis on conservative and tooth-saving treatment, is how I describe my own approach to this appointment. Where a tooth genuinely cannot be kept, I tell you that at the appointment and talk you through what replaces it.