MY CHILD BROKE HIS TEETH
Dental injuries occur in about one-half of all children, Bayo was not an exception.
It can be frightening to witness dental injuries in your child but it is not a hopeless situation if you know what to do.
We shared some important tips in this article to help you save the day.
dental injuries in children
Bayo’s story…
Bayo rushed to his mother’s bedroom, blood on his play clothes, holding his tooth in his hands with a frightened look on his face. On seeing him, his mother stood fixed and confused, not knowing what to do. Bayo had fallen from a chair and slipped on the floor tiles, whilst playing with his friend.
Dental injuries are very common and about one-half of all children will suffer a tooth injury. Tooth injuries result from falls, road traffic accidents, sports, violence and child abuse.
It is not unusual for the upper front teeth to be the most affected.
It is very important for every parent to know what to do if a child sustains a tooth injury.
If you are Bayo’s mother, what should you do?
HANDLING DENTAL INJURIES
A Complete removal from socket
When a tooth forcefully falls completely out of the socket, the injury is called an “avulsion injury”.
The next steps to take, depends if the tooth is a milk tooth or an adult tooth.
A MILK TOOTH
A babies fist set of teeth which naturally fall out at 6-11 years old.
- Remain calm
- Rinse your child’s mouth with clean water
- Report to the dental clinic.
The dentist will take a history of the event from you, he will examine your child for other injuries to the head or body, he will also counsel you and your child.
- The milk tooth would not be replanted so that the adult tooth will be allowed to erupt in its place.
- A device known as a space maintainer may be placed in your child’s mouth to preserve the space left, so that the adult tooth can erupt easily into the space when it’s time.
A PERMANENT (ADULT) TOOTH
For an adult tooth, a stitch in time definitely saves nine.
- Be calm. All hope is not lost
- Hold the tooth by the crown, not the root, and rinse under gentle running water
- Replant the tooth immediately and report to the dental clinic.
- If you cannot replant the tooth, place the tooth in liquid milk or saliva in a cup. If available at home, the best storage medium is Hank’s balanced salt solution.
- After placing the tooth in a storage medium, report to the dental clinic with the tooth within one hour.
- The storage medium and time elapsed after injury determines the long-term survival of the tooth.
The dentist will take a history of the event from you, he will examine your child for other injuries to the head or body, he will also counsel you and your child.
- In cases of dental injuries, the dentist may ask your child to receive a booster dose of tetanus toxoid if your child has received the vaccine but not up to date with immunization.If your child has not received any immunization, anti-tetanus serum is administered.
- There are various treatment options. We covered them in another article.
Click here to read.
Dear parent, if your child’s permanent tooth falls out of its socket as a result of injury, it is not the end of the world, the tooth can be saved if you pay attention to the tips outlined above.
Here is Part 2 of this article.
