If you have trauma, pain, infection, swelling or bleeding they may be signs that you have an emergency situation. If you had a tooth knocked out or knocked loose, you need urgent emergency care. It may be possible for your dentist to preserve your tooth and reinsert it. You should pick it up carefully by the top and not the root. You should rinse it and put it back into the socket. If you cannot, you should put your tooth in a container of milk.  If you had a tooth knocked out best results occur if the tooth is reinserted and splinted within a hour.  If you had a tooth knocked loose best results occur if the teeth are splinted within 12 hours.

If you have a chipped or cracked tooth, clean your mouth and apply a cold compress to reduce the swelling. Be careful what you take for the pain because numbing gel can hurt your gums. You may have an abscess which can become severe and maybe life threatening. This is when there is a pocket of pus in the tooth and it has become infected. You may have a fever, toothache, swelling, bite sensitivity or lymph nodes that are tender. The infection can move into your jaw, the tissue, and other areas.