Severe toothache, knocked-out tooth, broken crown, dental abscess — we treat dental emergencies as priorities. Call us as soon as the issue arises and we'll work you in. Same-day appointments often available.
A dental emergency rarely arrives on schedule. A back molar cracks halfway through dinner. A child falls off a bike and a front tooth lands on the sidewalk. A long-quiet root finally flares into pain that no over-the-counter medication can touch. When that happens in Mooresville or anywhere around Lake Norman, you don't want to drive forty minutes south to a Charlotte hospital — you want a local team that already knows what to do.
The Dental Spot is a full-service dental practice on West McLelland Avenue, just a minute off I-77 Exit 36. We handle the full range of urgent dental issues in-house: emergency exams with same-visit x-rays, root canals, crowns, extractions, and tooth re-implantation. Our team is bilingual (English and Spanish), accepts most major dental insurance, and offers transparent payment plans for everything else.
Every situation below is treated as urgent. Call ahead so we can prepare the operatory and pull your records before you walk in.
Throbbing pain that wakes you up, sensitivity to hot or cold that lingers for more than 30 seconds, or pain on biting — these usually point to a deep cavity, a cracked tooth, or an inflamed nerve. Most respond well to same-visit treatment.
A permanent tooth that has been completely knocked out is the most time-sensitive dental emergency there is. Re-implantation is most successful within the first 30 minutes, and outcomes drop sharply after an hour.
Visible damage to a tooth, especially with sharp edges or exposed dentin, needs attention. We can usually save the tooth with bonding, a crown, or — for deeper fractures — a root canal followed by a crown.
A crown that came off in a piece of caramel, a filling that fell out during dinner — these aren't always painful, but the exposed tooth is vulnerable to further damage. We can usually re-cement an intact crown the same day.
An abscess shows up as a pimple-like bump on the gum, persistent throbbing pain, a bad taste in your mouth, or visible facial swelling. Dental infections do not resolve on their own and can become serious if ignored.
Bitten lip, tongue laceration, or a gash on the gum after a fall. Most stop bleeding with pressure, but deeper cuts may need sutures and any embedded debris needs to be cleaned out.
Knocked-out baby teeth are usually not re-implanted, but they still need evaluation to make sure the permanent tooth underneath wasn't damaged. Chipped front teeth, mouth lacerations, and toothaches in kids are all worth a call.
An impacted or partially erupted wisdom tooth can flare up suddenly, often with swelling around the gum flap (pericoronitis), pain on opening the jaw, and a bad taste. We can manage the infection and plan extraction when appropriate.
Dry socket after an extraction, a temporary crown that came off, a filling that feels too high — these are common, fixable, and worth a quick call rather than a weekend of discomfort.
When something is wrong, it's hard to think clearly. Here's what to do in the time between hanging up the phone and walking through our door.
Most patients have never had a dental emergency before. Here's what walking through our door actually looks like.
You'll fill out a short health-history form (or update us if you're an existing patient). We focus on the medications you're taking and any allergies. Five minutes at most.
A single targeted x-ray of the affected tooth — sometimes a full panoramic — tells us what's happening below the gum line. We use low-dose digital sensors.
Local anesthetic to make sure you're comfortable. We don't start working until you're truly numb, and we check in with you throughout.
Most emergencies are stabilized in a single visit — re-implantation, root canal initiation, crown re-cement, temporary repair, or extraction. We walk you through the plan and the cost before we begin.
Written and verbal. What to eat, what to avoid, when to take what medication, and what symptoms warrant a call back.
Almost every emergency needs a follow-up — to place the final crown, finish the root canal, or check healing. We schedule it before you leave.
When you're in pain or your child is bleeding, you don't want a thirty-minute drive south to a Charlotte hospital. The Dental Spot is on West McLelland Avenue in Mooresville — a quick turn off I-77 Exit 36 — and we treat patients from across Lake Norman, Davidson, Cornelius, Huntersville, Troutman, Statesville, and Denver every week.
Our team speaks English and Spanish. Most major dental insurance plans are accepted. Our 3D CBCT imaging lets us see fractures and infections that conventional x-rays miss. And because we keep most procedures in-house — root canals, crowns, extractions, implants — you don't have to be referred out in the middle of an emergency.
Book a visit
If you have severe pain that doesn't ease with over-the-counter pain medication, visible swelling in your face or gums, a tooth that has been knocked out or pushed out of place, uncontrolled bleeding after an injury, or a fractured tooth with sharp edges — it's worth calling. We can triage by phone and help you decide whether you need to be seen right away or whether it can wait.
Leave us a detailed message or send a text describing what happened and we'll get back to you promptly. For a knocked-out tooth, the first 30 minutes matter most — store the tooth in milk and call right away. If you're experiencing facial swelling that affects breathing or swallowing, treat it as a medical emergency and head to the nearest ER.
Most dental insurance plans cover emergency exams and diagnostic x-rays at the in-network rate. Treatment (fillings, root canals, extractions) is typically covered at standard restorative percentages. We verify your benefits before you arrive whenever possible and present clear estimates before any treatment begins.
An emergency exam with a diagnostic x-ray is generally one of the lower-cost visits in dentistry. The treatment itself depends on what's needed. We give you an itemized estimate before we start any work, and we offer financing through CareCredit and our in-house wellness plan for patients without insurance.
Often, yes — but time matters. Knocked-out adult teeth can usually be re-implanted if we see you within 30 to 60 minutes and the tooth has been stored properly (milk, saliva, or saline — not water). Cracked and broken teeth can typically be saved with a crown, a root canal, or a bonded repair. Severe abscesses sometimes require extraction, but we exhaust restorative options first.
Absolutely. We see kids regularly for chipped teeth from playground falls, knocked-out baby teeth, and toothaches. Our team is gentle and patient with younger patients, and we'll involve you every step of the way.
You don't need to be an established patient. Many of the people we treat in emergency visits are seeing us for the first time. Just call — we'll get you on the schedule and walk you through what to bring.
Same-day appointments are often available, especially in the morning or first thing on weekdays. Call us as soon as the issue arises — the earlier you reach out, the more options we have to work you in.
Patients drive in from across the region. Our office is just off I-77 Exit 36, which keeps the trip short from most surrounding towns.
Free parking on-site. Wheelchair accessible.
