Children are often more susceptible to injuries. They tend to be a bit careless and accident-prone, and sometimes injuries occur in their mouths.
Your child can fall when playing or bite on something hard and break a tooth. Children’s dental emergencies can happen quickly. It’s easy to panic in these situations, so it’s best to know what to do in a dental emergency in advance. Here is everything you need to know to deal with dental emergencies in kids.
Common Dental Emergencies in Kids
During playtime, when children fall on the ground, their mouths usually take the maximum jerk. High-impact falls can result in an internal injury such as a broken tooth or a deep cut on the walls of the mouth or gums. These dental emergencies in children can look severe as mouths bleed more than many other body parts.
While minor mouth injuries will heal on their own, as a parent, you must determine whether your child is experiencing a dental emergency. Firstly, you need to rinse your child’s mouth with warm water to drain the blood. This will allow you to see the extent of the injury. Then, you can follow a few tips for dealing with such situations before scheduling a kids’ emergency dental visit in Grand Prairie with Dr. Peter Guirguis. Here are the most common children’s dental emergencies.
Severe Tooth Pain
Severe toothache in children can be due to a piece of food stuck between their teeth or an underlying issue like cavities or gum disease. To help with your children’s tooth pain, first, have them wash their mouths with warm water to loosen any piece of food. Then floss between their teeth to remove anything that is stuck.
If their pain doesn’t go away, they could have a cavity, an abscess, or another dental issue. This persistent pain is your cue to contact your emergency dentist and make an appointment.
Chipped or Broken Tooth
Contact your dentist immediately if your child has a chipped or broken tooth. This situation is a children’s dental emergency that needs quick action to prevent infection and save the tooth. Have your child rinse the injured area and hold a cold compress over it to reduce swelling.
Find the broken piece of the tooth if you can and keep it in a container with milk. Bring the tooth to your kid’s emergency dental visit in Grand Prairie. The dentist might be able to restore the tooth by smoothing it or using some appropriate material to rebuild it. Dentists use dental bonding to reattach a tooth.
If a baby tooth chips before it is naturally ready to fall out, it is still important to see your child’s dentist as soon as possible. A damaged tooth can lead to other oral health complications.
Knocked-Out Tooth
If it was already loose, a knocked-out baby tooth is not necessarily a children’s dental emergency. Never try to adjust the tooth back in the cavity. Doing this could cause damage to the permanent tooth lying beneath it. You can give your child painkillers like ibuprofen or paracetamol. Also, to stop the bleeding, you can apply pressure using gauze.
A knocked-out permanent tooth is an emergency. Find the dislodged tooth and gently wash it with room-temperature water. Try placing it back in your child’s socket while holding it from the crown. If you can’t do this, keep the tooth moist by putting it in a container with milk. So call your dentist in Grand Prairie immediately for a kid’s emergency dental visit.
Dental Abscess
A dental abscess will look like an inflamed, swollen little pocket of skin in your child’s mouth. It may be a sign of gum disease or infection. Left untreated, it can lead to other problems like severe toothache, fever, and difficulty breathing. Your child might even need to visit the ER.
Call your emergency dentist if you notice your child’s face swelling. Meanwhile, place a cold compress on their face to control the swelling.
Loose Dental Fillings
A prevalent dental emergency in older children with composite fillings is dislodgement. If your child’s dental filling becomes loose or lost, it will expose the unprotected tooth beneath it to bacteria. These bacteria can lead to cavities and make the tooth sensitive to hot or cold foods.
It’s crucial to visit a dentist immediately and replace the filling. The longer you delay this visit, the more serious the problem will become.
Tooth Sensitivity
Minor tooth sensitivity to hot or cold foods and beverages is normal. However, sudden sensitivity or too much of it can indicate an underlying issue and a children’s dental emergency.
If your child is complaining about tooth sensitivity, the reason might be a cavity or a dental injury. A kids’ emergency dental visit to Definitive Dental in Grand Prairie can determine the cause of this sensitivity and rid your child of the pain.
Dental Trauma
Children can easily experience dental traumas while playing and running around. If trauma occurs, their teeth may start losing color and become darker. There may also be tenderness and swelling. Even worse, your child may fracture their jaw.
If this children’s dental emergency happens, apply a cold compress over the injured area to reduce swelling. Tell your child to avoid moving their jaw and call the dentist for an emergency appointment.
Broken Braces and Stuck Objects
Another form of emergency is when your children’s braces break or something gets stuck between their teeth. With broken braces and appliances, you can cover the sharp ends with cotton balls as you try to remove them. If removing them is painful, you must schedule a kids’ emergency dental visit in Grand Prairie.
You can use floss for a children’s dental emergency involving a stuck object between their teeth. Gently lower the floss between the teeth in a back-and-forth motion and try to dislodge the object. Avoid using sharp tools like tweezers to remove it, and call the dentist if you can’t get it out with floss.
Mouth Injuries
Biting down on the lips, inside the cheeks, and tongue is not uncommon, especially among children. You can help your child by having them rinse their mouth. If the area is bleeding, apply pressure with clean gauze and use a cold compress to control the swelling.
Most injuries of this type are insignificant and don’t count as children’s dental emergencies. If the bleeding doesn’t stop after 10-15 minutes, you can call for an emergency appointment.
FAQs
How can I prevent kids’ dental emergencies at home?
Sometimes accidents happen, but there are things you can do to lower their chances:
- Don’t give young children hard candy, or — if you do — require them to sit while they eat it.
- Don’t let children run around with objects in their mouths.
- Ensure your children are wearing mouthguards when playing sports.
- Teach your kids good oral hygiene to keep their teeth healthy.
- Visit a dentist every six months to prevent dental emergencies in your children.
How do you treat dental emergencies in your office?
We will prioritize your kids’ emergency dental visits in our Grand Prairie family dentistry practice. When you bring your kids to the office, our friendly staff will make them feel comfortable. The dentist will then ask about the symptoms and thoroughly examine their teeth before determining the appropriate course of action. For instance, he will prescribe antibiotics for infections and drain the abscess in the office. Whatever your children’s dental emergencies are, we take every step to ensure they will experience pain-free treatment.
Treat Your Kids’ Dental Emergencies at Definitive Dental
Definitive Dental is where dentistry is done right, and we are ready to treat your dental emergencies. Whether you or your children are experiencing these emergencies, call our office at (972) 646-0660 or fill out our contact form to make an appointment. We’ll do everything we can on the same day to ease your discomfort.
