Accessing emergency dental care
If you’ve got a tooth knocked out, severe pain wrecking your sleep, a swelling or a lump in your mouth— you can access NHS 111 for urgent dental care.
NHS 111 is your fast track to urgent dental care 24-hours a day, seven days a week.
Symptoms for urgent emergency dental care?
You'll be given advice on what type of appointment you'll need, depending on the following symptoms:
- You have a knocked-out tooth or other injury to your teeth
- You have severe tooth or mouth pain that's affecting your sleep or daily activities, and is not helped by painkillers like paracetamol or ibuprofen
- You have tooth or mouth pain that is helped by taking painkillers, but it's not going away
- You have swelling, a lump or patch inside your mouth that's getting bigger or not going away – it may or may not be painful
- You’ve recently had a tooth removed and you're bleeding or have severe pain
- You have a broken or loose filling, denture, crown, bridge or veneer
You can call 111 or get help from 111 online.
What can NHS 11 do to support you?
NHS 111 can advise you where you can get seen and, in appropriate cases, organise an emergency dental appointment, which might be at a different practice from your regular NHS dentist but usually nearby.
If you have a regular dentist, contact your practice first. If you do not, or you need out-of-hours advice from a professional, NHS 111 is available to support the public.
Find out more useful information on the NHS website.
