Kids have accidents and often the teeth are involved. What do you do?
The safest answer is... call us!
What we will want to know are the child's age and the extent of the injury to the tooth, or teeth.
In all cases a quick photo with your phone will enable us to view the injury quickly from the office or from home and advise the next action to take. Please email the photo to info@toothclub.com. If you are calling from the emergency hot line we will give you a phone number you can text it to or an alternate email address.
Age is a factor in our treatment advice. Children under six have most likely injured a primary or "baby" tooth, and treatment is in most cases of little urgency. However, if the front teeth are displaced making biting difficult or impossible, urgent attention should be considered.
If the permanent teeth are involved, the type of injury must be assessed quickly. Usually, injury results in a fracture of the enamel and dentin components of the crown of the tooth. These fractures can be small enough to ignore, but are often large enough to warrant sealing of the fractured surface within the first twenty-four hours. Many times the fragment that is fractured from the tooth can be bonded back into position. Esthetically, the restoration of these fractures is excellent. You want to do this very soon after the accident and be sure and bring the fragment with you to the office so we can put it all back together.
If a permanent tooth is knocked out of the mouth, time is CRITICAL. Someone must put the tooth back into its socket within the first half hour, preferable immediately. If you are courageous enough to this yourself, do not wash the tooth. You may rinse it gently, but do not scrub the surface. Place the tooth in the position that looks normal to you and transport the patient to a dentist ASAP! The dentist will make sure the tooth is positioned correctly and then splint it for up to ten days. Antibiotics may be prescribed. A root canal procedure may follow, but not always. If you are not courageous enough to do the re-implantation yourself, keep the tooth moist in mile or saline water and get to the nearest dentist immediately.
Primary or "baby" teeth cannot be re-implanted.
