What happens if my child has a permanent tooth that gets knocked out? Can we save knocked out teeth?
Well, the best thing to do is seek dental care whenever you have knocked out teeth. Our biggest concern is little cells are around each tooth. We want to make sure that those cells stay viable or do not die.
There are solutions out there that you can buy to be able to keep the tooth. They’re called Save-A-Tooth or Hank’s Solution. Those are the best solutions. However, most times if you’re in that situation, you don’t have them on hand and you need to use them immediately.
The next alternative, if a child is old enough that they will not swallow a tooth, is to stick it just in their cheek and keep it within the mouth environment. That way, it stays fairly stable. Call a dentist immediately, and see if you can get in. Again, if this tooth stays out of the mouth for more than an hour to an hour and a half, it is very, very unlikely that that tooth will be able to stay in their mouth forever.
Replacing a Broken Tooth
We work at replanting the tooth or putting the tooth back in place and usually splint it so that it doesn’t move. A lot of times if this happens, there can be trauma to other areas of the mouth. The biggest areas are the lips or the tongue. We splint the tooth and monitor it on a consistent basis. Usually, we start off with a week, two weeks, a month, two months, just taking X-rays, making sure that there’s no infection that follows. Quick action can frequently save a tooth.
Though, keep in mind, you may need to have a root canal, and possibly a crown afterwards based on if the tooth is broken. There is a very, very good chance of success, but the biggest concern is time. As soon knocked out teeth can get back in the mouth, the more likely it is for them to be long-lasting.
If you have an emergency dental situation, give us a call.
