Dental Injuries and Toddlers

Toddlerhood is a period in a person’s life where injury is a likely happenstance. And among the most common is a toddler losing a tooth because of injury. When this happens to a toddler, his or her situation is dealt differently compared to an adult. When an adult experiences a tooth injury, the tooth should be replaced when broken and should be fixed when damaged. This is because an adult’s jaw may have its integrity and shape compromised as time rolls by, while a toddler’s jaw would normally grow over time despite the loss of the tooth. The dentist would typically leave the space that was once occupied by the tooth, and wait for the growth of the permanent tooth to fill it. There is many a pediatric dentist in Newtown that is good at fixing a broken tooth for kids and will take good care of kids’ dental health, with teaching dental hygiene to toddlers included in their program.

A good pediatric dentist would not immediately order an X-Ray for a child’s tooth, because of the hazard to the child’s health, having a lower immunity. Therefore, an inspection of the mouth would be adequate for the competitive dentist and only order X-Ray when it is gravely needed, such as confirming bone problems and root problems. A spacer that will support the tooth’s normal arrangement would be utilized for rare cases when the missing tooth’s space is assessed to potentially lead to shifting and changes in the teeth that is surrounding the space.

In case your child experiences an injury with his or her mouth being affected, and a tooth (or two) gets knocked out, assess the loss. Assess whether the tooth was damaged or entirely gone. A damaged tooth’s broken chips should be kept from being accidentally swallowed by the child, thereby making the child do mouth rinsing and then spitting the water afterwards. This will prevent another possible accident: choking. This is also why choking is likewise prevented by instead yanking out a loose tooth instead of trying to save it. A tooth that is completely yanked out should be located and kept inside a glass filled with milk. Only milk and saliva can preserve the tooth, so it would be unhygienic but still possible to keep it inside your mouth between the cheek and the gum. The tooth is then brought to the dentist to determine whether it could still be salvaged or not. But before heading to the dentist, the toddler should be made to bite down on either a moist towel or moist gauze to control bleeding and eventually stop it. A Popsicle is then highly recommended (as most kids would easily say yes to ice cream) for the child to suck on, as the coldness would help lessen the swelling.