My experience as a dentist in an urban community is that dental emergency patients who show up at hospital ER's are not diagnosed or treated very well. The problem is exacerbated over weekends and holidays when dentists are not as easily available for a referral. Acute dental pain is the easiest pain to rid, but all too often, an ER (emergency department) physician prescribes a CNS pain reliever and an antibiotic and told to see a dentist.
The patient is only temporarily relieved, if at all. This is not the proper care.
