Our office on Madison Pike is closed Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and the last chair time of the week is Thursday at 6:00 PM. The phone never closes, though. Call (859) 555-0147 at any hour; a real person picks up, takes down what's going on and holds the first opening for you at 5302 Madison Pike, Independence, KY 41051. For a call on Thursday evening, Friday, Saturday or Sunday, that opening is Monday at 9:00 AM.
The $89 covers the emergency exam and the X-rays needed to diagnose the tooth, for patients paying without insurance. Treatment is priced separately and quoted to you in writing before any work starts.
Same-day appointments · $89 exam + X-rays · Phones answered 24/7 · Se habla español
An after-hours dentist call in Independence: what it gets you
Searches for a weekend emergency dentist in Independence, KY tend to happen at bad hours, so here is exactly what a call to us gets you. In office hours, Monday through Thursday, the front desk picks up. Outside those hours an answering service picks up for us. They aren't dentists, and they won't tell you what to do about the tooth. Their job is narrow and useful: take your name, a number we can reach you at and a line or two about the problem, then write you into the earliest opening we have.
That opening depends on when you call. Monday evening gets Tuesday at 9:00 AM. Tuesday evening gets Wednesday at 9:00 AM. Wednesday evening gets Thursday at 9:00 AM. Anything after 6:00 PM on Thursday, and anything on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, gets Monday at 9:00 AM.
When the front desk unlocks the door Monday, your note is waiting. If anything needs confirming, they call you back. Walk-ins aren't accepted on Monday any more than on other days, so the call you make over the weekend is the thing that gets you the time.
Getting through the night with a toothache
Say a tooth starts aching at halftime of a Friday-night Pioneers game. It has a long wait ahead of it. These things help, none of them fixes the tooth, and all of them are safer than guessing.
Take an over-the-counter pain reliever at the dose printed on the box, and no more, as long as your own doctor hasn't told you to avoid it. Swish warm salt water (roughly half a teaspoon stirred into a glass) a few times a day. Floss gently on both sides of the sore tooth; a wedged popcorn hull can throb like a cavity. Hold something cold against the cheek in short stretches. Prop your head up at night, because lying flat sends more blood to the jaw and the pounding gets louder.
Skip very hot, very cold and sugary food and drink, and chew on the other side. Don't lay an aspirin tablet on the gum; that burns the tissue and helps the tooth below not at all. A broken edge that's cutting your tongue can be covered for now with a bit of sugarless gum pressed over it.
On our toothache relief page you'll find what our dentists check for on Monday and the usual reasons a tooth hurts.
Swelling in the jaw, face or gums over a weekend
Swelling means infection, and of all dental problems, infection is the one that can turn in a matter of hours. A tender lump on the gum, a cheek that's fuller on one side, a foul taste that keeps coming back: those point to a dental abscess. We drain abscesses, clean out the infection and save or remove the tooth as it allows, at the first opening. Until then, salt water rinses, a pain reliever as labeled, and a cold pack outside the cheek. Don't squeeze the lump. Don't put heat on your face.
Keep an eye on it through the weekend. If the swelling climbs toward the eye or slides down the neck, if a fever comes on, if swallowing gets difficult or breathing feels tight, don't wait for us in Independence; go to a hospital emergency room that night. Hospitals treat spreading infection and injuries; they generally don't treat the tooth itself. When the hospital has the infection in hand, phone us, and we'll deal with the tooth behind it.
A knocked-out tooth on a Friday night or weekend
When an adult tooth comes all the way out, it can sometimes be saved, and what you do in the first hour decides much of that. Handle it by the crown only, the white part you normally see; leave the root alone. If there's dirt on it, rinse it for a second or two in milk or cool water, with no soap and no scrubbing. Then try easing it back into its socket, facing the right way, and keep it there by biting softly on a clean cloth or gauze.
When reseating fails, the tooth has to stay moist. A small cup of milk is the usual choice, and an adult who won't swallow it can hold it inside the cheek instead. A dry tissue is the worst place for a tooth.
Call us straight away so the Monday 9:00 AM time is held. If the fall or the hit also involved your head, your jaw or a blackout, the hospital comes before the dentist. What happens when the tooth can be put back and splinted, and what we talk through when it can't, is on our knocked-out tooth page.
A broken tooth or lost crown before Monday
A broken tooth or a crown that popped off on Saturday is uncomfortable and rarely dangerous. Rinse the mouth with warm water. Save the crown, and save any piece of tooth larger than a crumb, in a small container. If the crown is intact, you can keep it clean and bring it with you; our dentists can often re-cement it if it still fits. Keep household glue away from both the crown and the tooth. A sharp edge can be covered with sugarless gum, or with dental wax from the pharmacy aisle. Chew on the other side and avoid anything sticky.
If the tooth is sensitive to air, that's the inside of the tooth reacting to being uncovered. It settles once the tooth is sealed. The broken tooth repair page and the lost filling or crown page describe what can usually be done at the Monday visit, from smoothing an edge to a new crown.
When the hospital is the right call
Some problems can't wait for a dental office, ours or anyone's. A hospital emergency room is the place when swelling is making it hard to get a breath or swallow, when it's climbing toward the eye or sliding down the neck, when a tooth infection comes with a high fever, when a blow to the face may have fractured the jaw or left a cut deep enough for stitches, when mouth bleeding hasn't slowed after 20 minutes of firm pressure, or when a knocked-out tooth comes paired with a head injury or a blackout. Hospitals treat spreading infection and injuries; they generally don't treat the tooth itself. The tooth is our part; ring us when you're out.
The two nearest emergency rooms to our office are St. Elizabeth Edgewood, 1 Medical Village Drive, Edgewood, about 9 miles away, 17 to 25 minutes (Madison Pike north to KY 17, then Dudley Pike and Thomas More Parkway), and St. Elizabeth Florence, 4900 Houston Road, about 11 miles away, 19 to 28 minutes. When the urgent part is handled there, phone us. The tooth still needs a dentist, and Monday at 9:00 AM is held for you.
What happens Monday morning at 9:00 AM
The front desk reads the weekend's notes first thing. If you were held a time, it's yours; nobody else gets it. You come to 5302 Madison Pike, Independence, KY 41051, where parking is on site. Our dentists examine the tooth, take the X-rays they need and tell you what they found. Then the cost of the treatment they recommend goes on paper and into your hand before anything starts.
PPO and traditional dental insurance plans get billed for the exam and X-rays, so have your card handy when you call and we verify it before you arrive. Cherry, LendingClub and CareCredit are available for patients who want to spread the cost of treatment over time. The particulars are on the cost and insurance page. Patients who didn't call over the weekend can still phone at 9:00 AM Monday and ask for one of the 10:00 AM, 12:00 PM or 3:00 PM emergency times as long as they last.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a dentist open Friday near me in Independence?
Not our office. We're closed Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and Thursday at 6:00 PM is the latest appointment of the week. We can't speak for anyone else in Northern Kentucky. What we can say is that a Friday call to (859) 555-0147 gets your name on the Monday 9:00 AM time before you hang up.
Is there an emergency dentist open now in Northern Kentucky at 11:00 PM?
Our chairs run Monday through Thursday from 9:00 AM, until 5:00 PM on Monday and Wednesday and 6:00 PM on Tuesday and Thursday. At 11:00 PM, what we can offer is a real person on the phone and the first opening, held under your name. If the problem is one of the hospital signs listed above, go to the emergency room tonight.
Does calling on the weekend really get me the first Monday time?
Yes. The answering service writes your name on the 9:00 AM opening and the front desk honors it. Calling early in the weekend doesn't change the time, since Monday 9:00 AM is the first opening either way, but it does mean the note is already waiting when the office unlocks, with your number on it in case anything needs confirming.