Tips For Dealing With A Knocked Out Tooth

Posted on: 23 June 2015

More than 5 million teeth are knocked out of their sockets every year. If your tooth has the misfortune of joining their ranks, there are a few steps you can take to prevent losing your tooth.

Steps You Can Take To Save Your Tooth

First, you should handle your tooth only by the crown and not the root. The root of your tooth is fragile, and should only be bothered to remove debris from your tooth with water. Water is the least corrosive substance readily available for this job. After you clean the root the best place for your tooth is to gently place it back in its socket. If that isn't possible there are a few other places you can store it until you're able to be seen by a dentist:

Between your cheek and gums
In a glass of milk
In a tooth preservation agent

However, you should never store your tooth in a glass of water. The cells of your tooth aren't able to tolerate pure water very well, and it may cause it to die more quickly. You should also never use alcohol or other antiseptic to clean your tooth's root of debris. It will cause your tooth to die almost immediately.

What Happens If You Take Too Long To Replace Your Tooth

In most cases, you only have an hour to have your tooth restored properly to its socket. Many times, it just isn't practical to replace the tooth within an hour. This can happen due to other injuries taking priority or possibly losing the tooth. If left outside of the socket for longer than this duration, your tooth will dry out and die.

If your tooth dies, you may want to consider getting an implant. Not only will the implant fill the gap your natural tooth left, but it will help fulfill the function of your tooth. Your jawbone benefits from the stimulation of your tooth, making the bone strong. When you lose your tooth your jawbone senses that loss and the bone will erode away over time. This is especially true if you lose multiple teeth.

In the event your tooth is knocked out, treat it as a dental emergency. Get to the dentist like Bracker Susan as quickly as possible. If you arrive when it's too late to save the tooth, your dentist will be able to advise you about the next steps in your oral care.

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Anyone who provides a service specifically for the youngest among us knows that treating kids must be approached very differently from treating adults. Children are not like adult patients. They require a dental team that makes children feel safe and secure at every appointment. The pediatric dental staff also needs to understand how to work with parents as well as young patients. As a pediatric dental hygienist and a mom, I understand that specific needs of children when they are visiting the dentist. This blog will explain exactly what kids need from a dental staff and will give options for making the dental office a welcoming environment to children. We can give a whole new generation healthy smiles by making pediatric dentistry the best it can be.