One minute, life is going smoothly. The next, you have a dental emergency on your hands. It can happen to anyone at any time without warning—often at great inconvenience. What do you do in those situations? How should you respond? Well, you certainly don’t want to panic! Stay calm and collected and immediately contact your emergency dentist, who can help restore you to health. But what if you can’t see the dentist right away? Here are some examples of dental emergencies and what you can do while you wait to get professional help.

You have been told that you should see a dentist twice a year for a dental cleaning. You brush your teeth. Maybe you even floss every day as well. Isn’t what you do at home enough? Actually, to maintain your long term oral health, you really do need to go in for this cleaning. But why? What does this cleaning do that you can’t do completely on your own? Although your healthy daily oral habits are certainly important, here are three things that your dental cleaning does to keep your mouth healthy.