Important things to take care if your child’s Tooth is Knocked Out?

A tooth being knocked out can be an incredibly stressful time, but here are a few tips to help you through.

Let’s make sure our patient is ok.
Take a steady breath and remain calm. We know that this sounds difficult, but someone needs to be calm in this situation, and it is unlikely to be the person with the tooth knocked out!

• Ask the patient to sit down so that you can have a look in their mouth. Asking them to sit also means that if they start to feel faint, they are more easily moved into a safe position. You are likely to see some bleeding as blood mixes with saliva and gives the appearance of a lot of blood. Don’t worry too much about this.
• Fetch your First-Aid kit from your home or car.
• Pop on some gloves to protect yourself and the patient from possible infections
• Ask the patient to bite down on a folded piece of gauze. If you don’t have a First-Aid Kit you can substitute a clean cloth like a hankie or scarf.

Now we need to check the tooth.

Make sure to only touch the tooth by the crown (the part that we use to chew) not the root (the part that is anchored into the jawbone).

Baby teeth

baby teeth (also called “deciduous teeth”) often have short, stumpy roots (as the permanent teeth are under them in the jawbone resorbing the roots).

Permanent teeth

Permanent teeth are bigger in size and appear slightly more yellow in colour when compared to a baby tooth. The patient is unlikely to have a permanent tooth to knock out unless they are older than 6 years old.

Once you are sure which type of tooth has been knocked out, we can plan what to do.

For a baby tooth: If your child knocks out a baby tooth do NOT reinsert into the mouth. Collect the tooth in a lunch bag or small container and ask the patient to spit into the bag to keep the tooth wet. If you are unable to get them to spit, you can use milk instead. Next, call the dentist to make a time to have the patient and tooth checked. For a permanent tooth: If a permanent tooth is knocked out, we need to aim to get to our dentist within 30 minutes of the injury to maximize the chances of saving the tooth.

If the tooth is covered in debris, briefly rinse with milk or tap water. Do NOT scrub it.

Put the tooth back into the mouth

• Check the tooth is facing the correct way
• Get the patient to bite gently on a cloth or gauze to hold the tooth in place. You can even use aluminium foil or the patient’s mouthguard to secure the tooth in position.
• If you’re unable to put the tooth back in place, take it with you to the dentist. Ideally it should be stored in the patient’s saliva or milk, but never in water.

We hope this information is helpful in case of a lost tooth.

Please call us with any questions- we are here to help. Our contact number here at Grandis Dental is 6404 2899.