Emergency management of alveolar osteitis

Patients with urgent dental problems who present to emergency departments (EDs) during weekday office hours are usually referred to their dentists, often after being provided with analgesia. Outside these hours, however, ED professionals may have to provide treatment before referral. One dental emergency with which patients may present but of which ED staff are unlikely to have experience is alveolar osteitis, a painful condition that occurs usually after tooth extraction. This article defines alveolar osteitis and describes management in an ED.