What To Do When A Child Has A Missing Or Loose Baby Tooth From Trauma
Children tend to get into accidents frequently. If they get a cut, you know to go to an urgent care center for stitches, but you may not know what to do when an injury involves your child's teeth. Baby teeth will eventually come out when the adult teeth come in, but do you just wait it out or take action? Here is what to do when it happens to your child.
Evaluate The Situation
It is a good idea to understand which teeth have a problem and if they will soon be replaced with adult teeth. The typical order that your child will develop their teeth starts with their lower front teeth and then the upper front teeth. The molars will be the ones that come in last. If the injury happened to your child's lower front teeth, they may be close to being in the clear since that has the highest possibility of being followed by an adult tooth. The injury to their teeth may even be attributed to that tooth becoming loose.
However, a missing molar when adult front teeth have not even come in could be a bigger problem since they won't be a replaced right away.
Know The Risks
One risk that you need to know about is the chance of your child getting an infection in the socket where the tooth is missing or loose. If the tooth broke out and there is part of the root still in the gums, that root may need to be extracted to prevent the chance of an infection happening. If the tooth is loose, your child will need to wiggle the tooth in hope that the entire tooth comes out in one piece.
Visit The Dentist
You should take your child to see a dentist if they suffered an injury to a baby tooth. X-rays will be taken to determine how far behind those adult teeth are and what the current shape of the tooth's root is like. Your dentist will be able to tell you if part of the root is still stuck under the gums or if the incoming adult tooth has dissolved the root of the baby tooth. The dentist may request that you return for a follow-up visit if the baby tooth does not come out completely to ensure that there is no risk of infection that could affect those adult teeth that will soon be growing in its place.
If your child's tooth is injured, call a dentist in your area today.