Common Pediatric Dental Emergencies

Any parent will tell you that parenting is a hard job. As children get older, the amount of knowledge a parent has increases, but that does not mean that we automatically know what to do in any given emergency.

If your child is suffering from a dental concern or emergency, you might be wondering what to do, especially if it happens on an evening or weekend.

Here are the most common pediatric dental emergencies:

Broken tooth:

It is all too common for a child to break or fracture a tooth, most often the result of falling or getting hit in the mouth. When this happens, make sure that you collect every piece of the tooth so the dentist can observe what happened when you are able to get in. If the tooth is jagged and cutting into your child’s mouth, dental wax can be placed over the broken part until his or her dental appointment. Wax can be bought at any pharmacy.

Toothache:

Getting a toothache is awful for anyone, let alone children. If your child is complaining about an extremely painful and throbbing tooth, that is when you should give the dental emergency phone line a call for more help. A dental abscess is a serious infection that should be treated as soon as it can be before the infection has a chance to spread. While not every toothache is an abscess, if there is any risk of it at all, it is much better to have it looked at than ignored.

Knocked-out tooth:

If your child has a tooth knocked out, especially if it is a permanent tooth, he or she needs to be seen by a dentist right away. Hold the knocked-out tooth by the crown and do not touch the root. If you are dealing with a younger child, place the knocked out tooth in a case with milk, saline or saliva and get to the dentist as soon as possible. If it is an older child, rinse the tooth first using milk or saline and then place the root of the knocked out tooth back in the socket. While the tooth won’t stay there, there is a better chance of the tooth surviving if it stays in its natural location. You wouldn’t put a younger child’s tooth in his or her mouth because there is a bigger risk of swallowing the tooth.

Lost filling:

If a crown or filling has come out of your child’s mouth, you can use dental wax to help seal up any sharp edges. You should make an appointment to come in as soon as you can, but unless your child is in pain, it should not have to be dealt with immediately. Make sure your child knows to avoid chewing in the area with the missing filling as that could cause a substantial amount of pain. A tooth without its filling is exposed to temperatures and sensations it would not have been otherwise.

If you are concerned that your child is experiencing a dental emergency, call your dental office to get on schedule right away. Teeth, especially in children, are not something that should be taken lightly. Regardless of the emergency, we can help get your child back on the road to great dental health.