By Healthy Living August 2, 2019 - 4:59am

What to do if a child has a loose front tooth after a fall? Is it possible to preserve it? In some cases, a broken tooth can be saved. Modern dentistry can often help. Anyone can face a dental injury, but it is more common in children. Falls may occur during sports and outdoor activities.

Dental injuries are a serious problem for a child. An adult can replace an embossed tooth with a dental crown but such procedure is contraindicated for children. Should the child be left without a tooth until adulthood? It is unaesthetic, harms the bite and articulation. A chipped or knocked-out tooth of a child can be restored.

Bruised tooth
What if the child falls and hits the teeth but there are no visible changes? This situation can mislead the parents, making them think the tooth is fine and there’s no need to visit the dentist. Bruised teeth can lead to various unpleasant complications.

What are the symptoms? The tooth hurts and sometimes staggers. If the neurovascular bundle is damaged, the enamel may turn pink or dark. Redness, swelling or hematoma on the gums also signify a bruise.

What to do? Go to the dentist’s office. The doctor will prescribe an X-ray to make sure that there are no complications or root fracture. Most often such an injury requires only observation. It is better not to load the damaged tooth for a couple of days and not to eat anything solid

Broken tooth
The displacement may be incomplete when the tooth changes its position relative to the neighboring teeth and complete when it leaves its place. The expression "broken tooth" is just about the second type of dislocation.

What are the symptoms? The change in the position of the dislocated tooth is visible to the eye and brings severe pain.

What to do? Immediately (within 1-2 hours) visit the dentist. If the tooth remains in the hole, the dentist will try to correct the dislocation. In the case of complete dislocation, the doctor will plug it up.

If you broke a tooth, you need to:
Record the circumstances and time of the injury.
Try to find the tooth or its fragments.
Rinse the tooth or its part under running water (you cannot hold it by the root, only by the crown).
Place the tooth or its fragment into saline, milk or saliva (but not into water).
Try to get to the dentist’s office within 1–2 hours after the injury with the broken tooth or its fragment.

Tooth fracture
Fracture is a violation of the integrity of the tooth. It is possible to break both a small piece and the entire visible part of the tooth.

What are the symptoms? A missing part of a tooth with sharp pain.

What to do? You need to do the same exact things as with a broken tooth.
Do I need to save the baby teeth?
Fragments of baby teeth are no worse than fixed parts. But an embossed baby tooth will probably not be fused. However, this does not mean that you should neglect the visit to the dentist. The doctor will look if a fragment of the tooth root remains (it should be removed) and fill the void with a child prosthesis.