When you’re dealing with a really serious oral infection, the number one priority is usually to treat it as quickly as possible. In that situation, you probably care a lot more about how fast you can get treated as opposed to what kind of treatment you get.

However, there is an important choice that you need to make if you’re dealing with a toothache—whether you get a root canal or an extraction. Here are a few more details about this kind of treatment and how to pick which one is right for you.

If you’re an athlete, it’s easy to wind up dealing with some serious dental emergencies while trying to play the best game that you can. This is obviously the case in contact sports, but even some non-contact sports like basketball can get rough enough to cause problems from time to time.

For that reason, athletes need to be even more conscientious than others about protecting their teeth. Here are a few dental emergencies you may want to watch out for, along with what you can do about them.