First hour checklist
① Rinse mouth with warm water · ② Save any fragments in milk · ③ Cold compress outside the cheek · ④ Cover sharp edges with dental wax or sugar-free gum · ⑤ Ibuprofen if sore — no Aspirin on the gum · ⑥ Call (613) 491-3300 — same-day if it hurts.
How Bad Is It? A Severity Ladder
Chipped enamel (cosmetic). A corner or edge, no pain beyond a rough tongue-catcher. Not urgent — book within days before it snags or grows. Fix: polishing or bonding, often one visit.
Dentin exposed (yellow layer showing). Sensitive to cold, air and sweets. Semi-urgent — dentin is porous, and bacteria commute through it. Fix within days: bonding or a filling; larger losses may need an onlay or crown.
Nerve exposed (pink or bleeding centre). Painful, often intensely. Same-day care — an exposed nerve almost always means infection unless treated fast. Fix: usually root canal plus crown.
Cracked tooth (line, pain on release of biting). The sneaky one — often invisible on x-ray, announced by a sharp zing when you release a bite. Don't wait: cracks propagate, and a crack caught early is a crown while a crack caught late is an extraction.
Split or vertical root fracture. The tooth moves in pieces or the split runs below the gum. Usually unsavable — but modern replacement (implant or bridge) is excellent, and same-day assessment prevents infection while you decide.
Knocked out entirely? Different protocol, extreme urgency — crown-only handling, brief rinse, back in the socket or into cold milk, and to us within 30–60 minutes. Call (613) 491-3300 en route.
Why "It Doesn't Hurt" Can Mislead
A painless break isn't necessarily a safe one. Sometimes the nerve died quietly years ago (no alarm system left), and sometimes the pain is simply on delay while bacteria travel. Any break deserves an exam within days — the $150 assessment routinely prevents the $1,500 escalation.
How We Fix Broken Teeth
Repair matches the break: bonding sculpts small-to-medium chips invisibly in one visit; crowns armour major breaks and cracked teeth; root canals rescue exposed or infected nerves; veneers rebuild front teeth beautifully when appearance drives the plan; and when a tooth truly can't be saved, we say so honestly and plan the replacement properly.
We hold same-day emergency appointments for exactly this — new patients included. And if it happened at the rink: worth reading about custom sports guards before the next season does it again.