Our kids are very important to us. We all want to guarantee their safety, however, this is not possible. Actually they have many accidents in their lives. Some of these accidents affect the teeth in many ways. One of them is to have a knocked out tooth. The front tooth (central incisor) is the most commonly affected tooth. Avulsed teeth form about 16% of the dental injuries. Most of these injuries occur at home 30%, or at school 25%. So if your child had a knocked out tooth, do you know what to do? Unfortunately, I found many parents do not know the following information.
The most important thing to know is time is a critical factor in the process of saving the knocked out tooth. When a tooth is knocked out, look for the tooth and handle it carefully. Don`t hold it from the root but from the crown. Rinse it gently with water if it is dirty. Never brush it or scrub it. Don`t use an soap or detergent. Then try to replace the tooth in the socket if you can and visit the dentist immediately.
If placing the tooth in the socked could not be done. The best medium to save the tooth in is milk, or simply, put it in the mouth between the cheek and jaw. Don`t use gauze or napkins and don`t use water. The main purpose of saving it in milk or the mouth is to save the vitality of the cells.
When you visit the dentist. He/She will evaluate your jaw bone, lips and gums for any injury, clean the tooth and replace it in its socket. Then a splint will be placed for few weeks. Depending on the amount of tooth formed, the dentist will decide whether a root canal treatment will be needed with in two weeks or not. A follow up is required for this tooth.
Remember, medium to save the tooth, time till the tooth is back in its socket and how soon you see the dentist are the main factors to have good prognosis saving this tooth.
I wish to forward this message to every one you know. These accidents are very common and I realized that patients` dental awareness is limited. I will try to post more topics related to dentistry that I find useful to patients. Please let me know if you have any suggestions.
May your kids have a healthy safe life..
