What You Can Do If You Chip Your Tooth While Vacationing Far From Home

You can chip a tooth at any time during your vacation. All it takes is doing something like biting down on a piece of hard candy the wrong way or getting hit in the mouth while playing catch on the beach. Suddenly, that bright smile of yours has a gap in it that needs to be filled and you've got a mouthful of pain. If you're on vacation, you will usually have to wait a few days before you can get back to your dentist to get the chipped tooth fixed. In the meantime, here is what you should do when your tooth gets chipped and a couple of things you can do to make yourself feel better so you can continue to enjoy your vacation.

Find the Broken Piece

There is a chance your dentist can cement the broken piece back onto your tooth, but there's only a chance if you have the chipped part to give them. If the chipped part fell out of your mouth when the tooth broke, you should try to find it. Find a small bottle, like one used for medical prescriptions. Spit into the container until it is about a quarter of the way filled up with saliva and then drop the tooth into it. The saliva will help to preserve the chipped piece. Cover the bottle so the saliva doesn't drain out if the bottle is accidentally tipped over.

Treating the Tooth

You should immediately go to a nearby pharmacy to pick up some dental wax and pain killers. Go back to your hotel room and pour yourself a lukewarm glass of water with a couple of teaspoons of table salt in it. Sip the water into your mouth and slosh it around the damaged tooth to clean it and kill off any bacteria that could be on it. Spit the water out and allow the tooth to dry. Press the dental wax over the damaged section of the tooth to seal it. This will help to minimize any pain you might feel and protect the tooth from infections.

Take Pain Medication

If you feel pain and/or discomfort, you should take a pain killer like ibuprofen or aspirin as necessary to alleviate it.

Make Dentist Appointment

You should call your dentist right away while you are still on vacation to set up an appointment to see them as soon as you get back so they can permanently fix the tooth.

Once you have done these things, you should be able to go back to enjoying your vacation. Just be careful on how you bite down on food to avoid making the situation worse before you get back home. If the dental issue does get worse, then make sure to seek out an emergency dentistry professional as soon as possible.