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Dental Care

In Need of Urgent Dental Care?

By April 11, 2022April 19th, 2022No Comments

ACC  

For dental injuries, ACC has requirements that must be completed to receive coverage. ACC does not cover injuries caused by food or eating; if you damaged your tooth or filling while eating anything hard, ACC will not be able to assist you. Otherwise, all injuries are normally covered by ACC; however, injuries to teeth that have been aggressively treated in the past may not be entirely covered. 

Your injury will need to be treated in New Zealand. If you break a tooth while travelling outside of New Zealand and have it temporarily mended there, ACC will not fund your treatment in New Zealand. Only New Zealand residents are covered for injuries sustained overseas, but non-residents may be relieved to learn that ACC can assist them if they are hurt in New Zealand. 

To be covered, you must file a claim for your injury within 12 months of sustaining it, however, it is recommended to consult an ACC provider as soon as possible after your injury. Champion Dental dentists are all ACC providers and are experienced in treating a range of dental injuries. Our front office will also be able to assist you in documenting your injuries and filing all the required paperwork. 

What is Emergency Dental Care: 

Dental emergencies are wide-ranging, we consider them as any treatment that needs to be carried out quickly, this could be to prevent further injury, stop bleeding or get the patient out of severe pain. Common emergencies we see include accidents that result in loss of or severe damage to a tooth and painful toothaches. In these circumstances, seeing a dentist straight away can help save your tooth, solve the immediate pain, and prevent nasty infections from getting worse. 

During emergency appointments, our focus is to alleviate any pain and cure the immediate issue. Please keep in mind that if a significant amount of work is needed, we may need to arrange more appointments to complete any ongoing treatment. If you have been in an accident and think you have injured your teeth or gums or have severe toothache, you must contact a dentist as soon as possible! 

There are also some emergencies that the Emergency Department is better equipped to manage. If this is the best option for you, our front office team can advise you after consulting with a dentist. 

What is Classed as Urgent and What is Not? 

It’s difficult not to panic when you have a dental emergency. However, how do you know when you should call your dentist and when you should wait? We’ve come up with a brief list of what is determined as urgent. 

  • Dental abscesses, they can get large quickly! 
  • Loose tooth 
  • Severe toothaches, and being in pain isn’t fun.  
  • Large crack or chip 
  • Post-surgical issues such as uncontrolled bleeding  
  • Knocked out tooth 

Regardless of whether you believe the issue is urgent or not, it pays to give us a call. Our front office team answers hundreds of calls per week, we have the experience to help you get the best outcome possible. We’re more than happy to point you in the right direction regardless of whether you’re a current patient or not.   

Call Us for Your Dental Emergencies 

If you are experiencing extreme pain or have a dental emergency, contact Champion Dental and we will assist you in resolving the issue! Please remember that we do not provide emergency care after hours. If it is outside our regular hours, contact an emergency care centre or go to your local emergency department.