Tag Archives: cleaning a knocked out tooth

My son’s tooth was knocked out by a baseball–should I have seen an emergency dentist?

My eight year old son lives and breathes baseball. He is constantly playing with baseballs, bats, if not on a ball field, and is always practicing. With that comes many bumps and bruises. However, he recently took a ground ball right to the mouth. He saved the ball, but lost his front tooth! There was some blood, and his mouth and gums were swollen, but he didn’t seem incredibly upset. The coach and I helped him calm down, and once he was back to his normal self, we took the tooth home for the tooth fairy.  Should I have taken him to an emergency dentist?

Sincerely,
Sarah

Dear Sarah,

I’m thankful your son is okay! Even the best ball players take one for the team from time to time. I can answer your question in two ways.

One, if your son has already lost his front tooth, I am very hopeful you have already sought dental attention. If the tooth he lost was permanent, it would have needed immediate emergency dental attention in order to be implanted again. The best course of action would have been to carefully collect the tooth, making sure to keep any attached tissue intact, place it it in wet towel, or even back in your son’s mouth, and head to the an emergency dentist right away.

If the lost tooth was not an adult tooth, it would not have been a dental emergency, nor a great need to have the tooth implanted again. However, he may have damaged his mouth in another way, or possibly  injured the adult tooth underneath. If this is the case, a  it might recommended that a spacer be placed to make sure the adult tooth has room to grow in, so visit to your family dentist, or a pediatric dentist, would be a good plan.

 

Emergency Preparation: A knocked out tooth

I’ve been making out a list of emergency prepardness sheets for a workshop I’ve been invited to speak. I thought it would be useful to list one of my sheets.

Dealing With A Knocked Out Tooth

1. Get to the dentist as quickly as possible. It is ideal to get there within the first 30 minutes. If you cannot reach your dentist do a quick Google search for an emergency dentist. However, seeing as we’re making a preparedness chart, it wouldn’t hurt to do a search for emergency dentists ahead of time so you have a list ready.

2. Call the dentist ahead of time so they can be prepared for you when you get there.

3. Carefully remove any dirt from your tooth by holding it by the crown (the top visible part of your tooth) and gently rinse it with water. DO NOT  scrub the tooth. DO NOT  hold the tooth by the root part.

4. Keep the tooth moist. You can do this by holding it between your cheek and gum, or by placing it in a cup of milk.

Now you know what to do with a knocked out tooth.

This blog is brought to you by Gilbert Dentist Dr. Matt Roper.