About three years ago the back half of one of my bicuspids fell out while I was eating pretzels. I did not get it looked at. I also smoked and chewed tobacco at this time. It hurt sometimes but I would jab a toothpick above the tooth on the gum line which would cause it to bleed and this seemed to relieve the pain for a while. About three weeks ago I have been getting serious pains in my mouth to the point where they wake me out of a dead sleep. Today while I was trying to find the origin of the pain, the tooth cracked and the front portion broke off. There is still a bit of tooth in my gums. The break allowed me to see the back side of the "tooth" which is just a black hole. It looks fairly deep but I cannot tell exactly how deep. I have plans to finally go see a dentist about the issue but what precautions should I take in the mean time? I have read that swishing salt water in my mouth should help, is this true?