Pediatric Dental Emergency

As a parent, seeing your child in pain can be challenging. You want to help them and do what is best for them, but you’re not sure what that could be. If you’re dealing with common pediatric dental emergencies, we can help. Contact Supreme Dentistry today at 844.966.2333 for family dentistry and emergency dental services.

Toothache

Whether you’re an adult or a child, toothaches happen from time to time. There are a variety of causes of tooth pain for children, including:

Tooth fracture
Wisdom teeth eruption
Tooth trauma
Tooth fracture

There are steps you can take to help your child. Clean the area with warm water. Check for food left behind, if possible, using a toothbrush and dental floss. Use a cold washrag or compress to cut down on the swelling. If your child is not responding to these ministrations, contact your family dentist to ask for further advice.

Lost Tooth

If your child’s baby or adult teeth have completely been knocked out of their mouth, it’s vital to contact your dentist immediately. If the lost tooth is an adult tooth, they may be able to save it and put it back into the socket. However, it’s usually more successful if they can do it within an hour of the tooth being knocked out. The first thing you need to do if the tooth has been knocked out is to pick it up gently by the top and rinse it off. For older children, help them insert the tooth back into the socket or place it in their cheek pouch. Do not try to do this for younger children, because they may swallow it. Instead, place the tooth in a cup of milk or saliva. Above all, keep it wet while you’re transporting it and the child to the dentist.

Broken or Fractured Tooth

The crown of the tooth is the most visible part of it. Unfortunately, that is also the part of the tooth that most commonly is injured or fractured. Contact your child’s dentist if the tooth has been damaged. They can use X-rays to determine how severe the fracture is. They can then apply a dental sealant to fix minor fractures or use pulp treatments to address more severe breakages. To help a child with a fractured tooth, rinse their mouth with warm water. Lay a cool, wet piece of gauze around the tooth, place a cold compress on the area, and provide the child with children’s Tylenol. Then, take your child to Supreme Dentistry for rapid and effective treatment. If you suspect that the root of the tooth has been fractured, you won’t see anything just by looking. In these cases, you need to get dental X-rays. Depending on where the fracture is and how much pain your child is in, the dentist can choose to monitor the tooth, treat it, or extract it.

Dental Concussion

One common pediatric dental emergency that may not occur to most people is a dental concussion. In this case, the tooth has not fractured or come out of the child’s mouth, but something has knocked or banged into it. This injury usually occurs with toddlers. In this case, the tooth will change color slightly. However, unless it turns black or dark, this does require dental treatment. If it does turn black or dark, the tooth may be dying and requires root canal therapy to save it.