Emergency Dentist in Chattanooga, TN

Same-Day Emergency Dental Care at Our Jenkins Road Office

A toothache that has kept you up two nights running. A bridge that came loose halfway through dinner at Hamilton Place. A chipped tooth from a fall on the Tennessee Riverwalk. A swelling on the side of your jaw that started yesterday. These are the calls our Chattanooga office takes every week, and the answer is always the same: call us, we will get you in fast, and we will get you out of pain.

Our Chattanooga office is on Jenkins Road in East Brainerd, just off Shallowford Road near Hamilton Place. We hold same-day slots for emergencies. Most patients who call before noon are seen the same day. If you are in pain right now, call (423) 206-9660. We answer the phone Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

When You Should Call Us First

Call right away if you have:

Tooth pain that wakes you up at night or stops you from eating
Facial swelling, especially if it is spreading or you have a fever (this can signal infection)
A knocked-out adult tooth (we have about a 60-minute window to save it)
Bleeding that does not stop after 10 minutes of firm pressure
A broken or cracked tooth, especially with sharp edges or visible damage
A loose or missing crown, filling, or bridge
Trauma to your mouth from a fall, accident, or sports injury

Call to schedule, but it is not urgent:

A small chip with no pain
Mild sensitivity to hot or cold
A small dark spot you noticed in the mirror
A minor cosmetic concern from an old filling

First Aid Until You Reach the Office

Knocked-out tooth: Pick it up by the crown, not the root. Rinse gently with milk if you have it (water if not), but do not scrub. Try to slip it back into the socket and bite down on a clean cloth. If reinsertion is not possible, store the tooth in milk, your own saliva, or a tooth-preservation kit and head this way fast. Within an hour, the odds of saving the tooth are good.

Cracked or broken tooth: Rinse with warm water. Cold compress to the outside of the cheek on the affected side. Save any tooth fragments. Take ibuprofen if you can.

Severe toothache: Warm salt water rinse. Floss to clear food debris. Ibuprofen with food. Cold compress on the cheek. Skip aspirin against the gum, it can burn the tissue.

Lost crown or filling: Save the crown if you have it. Dental wax (or sugar-free gum) can hold it temporarily. Do not chew on that side.

What to Expect at Your Emergency Visit

We start with a quick visual exam and a targeted X-ray of the area in question. The goal of an emergency visit is to get you out of pain that day. For most cases, that means immediate pain control, infection started on antibiotics if needed, and a broken tooth temporarily restored. For more involved follow-up like root canal therapy or a permanent crown, we get you stable today and book the rest as a return visit.

Dr. David Peterson has placed thousands of restorations and performed thousands of extractions over 21 years in private practice. The Chattanooga office is set up for same-day diagnostics and treatment. You see the same person from check-in to check-out.

Costs, Insurance, and Payment Options

We are in-network with most major PPO insurance plans. Existing patients are processed normally with their usual copay and deductible.

New patients without insurance can ask about our $125 New Patient Exam with X-rays, or the $199 Exam, X-rays, and Healthy Mouth Cleaning option (cleaning included if you do not have periodontal disease). Either offer can be applied to a new patient emergency visit.

Follow-up procedures (extractions, root canal therapy, crowns, implants) come with a written estimate before you commit. CareCredit is available for payment plans. We will not push you into treatment. If you need to think about the long-term plan, we book the urgent piece and send you home with the estimate for the rest.

Where Are We?

Finding the Chattanooga Office (3328 Jenkins Rd)

Address: 3328 Jenkins Rd Ste 100, Chattanooga, TN 37421

Phone: (423) 206-9660

Hours: Monday through Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Friday 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

How to find us:

From Hamilton Place Mall, take Shallowford Rd a short distance and turn onto Jenkins Rd.
From I-75, take the exit for Shallowford Rd and head west. Jenkins Rd is a few minutes off the exit.
From downtown Chattanooga, take I-24 east, then connect to I-75 north toward Knoxville. Exit at Shallowford.
From East Ridge, head north on Brainerd Rd, then east on Shallowford toward Hamilton Place.

If our Chattanooga office is fully booked: our Ooltewah office at 9325 Apison Pike is about 20 minutes east via I-75 and may have a sooner opening. Call (423) 396-4222 to check.

After-hours: leave a voicemail at (423) 206-9660 with your name, callback number, and a brief description. The on-call team checks evening and weekend messages. For severe swelling closing your throat, uncontrolled bleeding, or trauma from a major accident, go to the ER first.

Directions

Google Business Profile Listing

Yes! Schedule My Appointment

About Dr. Peterson

Dr. David Peterson earned his Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) from Loma Linda University School of Dentistry. He has practiced privately for 21 years and has treated approximately 25,000 patients across his career. His clinical work includes thousands of extractions (simple and surgical), thousands of restorations, hundreds of dental implant restorations, and hundreds of teeth whitening cases.

He commits to 25 hours of continuing education each year and has logged more than 800 hours of CE beyond dental school. BusinessRate named him a Top Dentist in Chattanooga in 2025. He has served as lead dentist on dental missions to Guatemala with HELPS International, joined a mission to Belize while at Loma Linda, and volunteers locally with AMEN clinics and Life Hope Centers.

About 90 to 95 percent of patients have been with the practice for five or more years. The practice maintains a 90 to 95 percent year-over-year retention rate.

Our Chattanooga Dental Services Include:

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I be seen the same day at the Chattanooga office?

Most days, yes. We hold same-day slots for emergencies. Call (423) 206-9660 as early in the day as you can. If we are full, we will check the Ooltewah office for a faster opening.

Where exactly is the office?

3328 Jenkins Rd Ste 100, in the East Brainerd area near Hamilton Place. From I-75, take the Shallowford Rd exit and head west; Jenkins Rd is a few minutes off the exit.

Do you treat walk-ins?

We strongly prefer that you call first, even just five minutes before you arrive, so we can prepare a chair and pull up your chart if you are an existing patient. If you do walk in, we will get to you as soon as we can. Calling first is faster.

What if my emergency is on a weekend?

Leave a voicemail at (423) 206-9660. The on-call team checks weekend messages. If you cannot wait, an urgent care or hospital ER can manage pain and infection until our office reopens.

How much does an emergency visit cost without insurance?

For new patients without insurance, the exam-and-X-ray portion is $125 under our new patient offer. Treatment costs depend on what we find. We give you a written estimate before any treatment starts. We accept CareCredit for payment plans.

Will the dentist actually treat me, or just refer me elsewhere?

Most emergency cases are treated in our office the same day. We perform extractions, root canal therapy, broken-tooth restorations, and abscess treatment in-house. For specialized work that we do not handle on-site (a complex orthognathic case, for example), we refer to a trusted specialist after stabilizing you.

Call (423) 206-9660 for Same-Day Care

If you are in pain in the Chattanooga area, do not wait it out. Call (423) 206-9660. If we cannot fit you in today at the Jenkins Rd office, we will tell you that on the call and route you to Ooltewah or to an after-hours option that fits your situation.