Some practical ways to find care when your usual office is closed:

• Call your regular dentist anyway. Many practices leave an emergency number or a covering dentist on their voicemail.
• Search for offices with extended hours. Our dentists near me directory lets you look up practices in your area; calling ahead to confirm they can see emergencies saves a wasted trip.
• Dental schools and community health centers sometimes run urgent-care clinics or same-day slots, usually on weekdays.
• Urgent care vs. ER. Most medical urgent cares and ERs cannot fix a tooth, but an ER is the right place for facial swelling that is spreading, fever with dental pain, trouble swallowing or breathing, or uncontrolled bleeding.
• Use your insurance card. Many dental plans have a member line that can point you to in-network offices with openings.

To sort out how urgent a problem is, try the dental emergency checker. And if you don’t have a dentist yet, it’s worth finding one before the next emergency.

General education only, not a diagnosis or treatment advice. Please see a licensed dentist about your own situation. For a medical emergency (trouble breathing or swallowing, heavy bleeding, a major injury or rapidly spreading swelling), call 911 or go to the nearest ER.