Learn How To Salvage a Tooth That’s Been Knocked Out From Our Family Dentist Office

As a family dentist we work with a lot of families that have kids in sports. Children play sports as part of their growing up. As parents, many of us worry about their well-being in contact sports like football and soccer. As a result, a whole industry has sprung up around protecting the body from taking punishment during a sports game. The teeth are no exception with mouth guards that can be used to protect the mouth from an accident. There are store bought guards and also guards that we can specially design to fit your child’s mouth. Regardless of what you use, it is important to ensure that your child has a good guard to protect their mouth and teeth.In the event that a child does lose a tooth because of the sport, or even due to some other unforeseen accident, there are steps that can be taken immediately.  This can prevent long-term damage to the tooth, the gums, and the child’s mouth. The most important thing to remember is that when a child experiences a tooth loss due to an accident, you do need to seek medical help as soon as possible by contacting our dentist office immediately. We will then determine what steps need to be taken and will most likely have you come in very quickly so as to mitigate the damage.  This way any repair work that needs to be done on the child’s mouth can begin immediately.Children typically have two kinds of teeth. The first set is popularly known as milk teeth, also known as deciduous teeth.  They are temporary teeth used for the first few years of a child’s life. They are designed to fall out when it is time for the permanent teeth to come in. As a result, these teeth play a very important role by keeping a properly sized space for the permanent tooth to move into. The permanent teeth come in later in life, and if they are knocked out for some reason, it becomes critical to replace them as there is no other tooth to grow in.  As a family dentist, we work to keep both sets of teeth healthy and treat them after an accident.Once a child has experienced an accident and has lost a tooth, the first step is to find the tooth and make sure that it is clean. The tooth can be transported in milk or a saline solution for permanent tooth, to our dentist office. For a permanent tooth, you can also place the cleaned tooth back into the cavity that was left by the knocked out tooth. It can be held in place either with the tongue or by using a foil to bind it in place using the surrounding teeth. It is very important to make sure the tooth is cleaned before placing it back into the mouth to avoid infection from the dirt.We advise not picking up the tooth by the root, and in fact recommend not touching the root at all but instead picking up the tooth by the crown so as not to damage it. Once you have found the tooth, please call our family dentist office immediately, since a knocked out tooth is a dental emergency which we will want to deal with right away.

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