Should you go to the EMERGENCY ROOM if you have a dental emergency? That's a great question. The answer is MAYBE and most likely NO. The emergency room does not have dentists available to treat dental emergencies. It is illegal to practice dentistry without a dental license. ER doctors can’t do much to help with most/typical dental emergencies. You will leave the ER with the same problem you arrived with. ER visits cost much more than visiting the dentist. The average cost for a visit to the emergency room was $1,389 in 2017, according to a study by Health Care Cost Institute. It is much more productive and much less expensive to have your dental emergency treated by an emergency dentist. It is almost always recommended to see an emergency dentist if you have a dental emergency. You SHOULD go to the emergency room if: you have swelling from a toothache that has spread to other parts of your face, especially your eye or below your jaw line; you have a toothache accompanied by a high fever (>101); you have bleeding that can’t be controlled with pressure; you have a toothache and start to have trouble swallowing or breathing AND YOU CAN’T GET AHOLD OF AN EMERGENCY DENTIST.
