How to deal with tooth injuries

No matter how well you take care of your pearly whites, you can still suffer from tooth injuries because of accidents, external trauma, sports injuries etc. Suffering tooth damage due to injury these days, doesn’t mean that you spend the rest of your life with a missing or broken tooth. Dentists can limit the amount of damage that has been done if you visit one soon after the injury has taken place.

The most common types of tooth injuries are

• Extruded teeth
• Fractured teeth
• Avulsed teeth

Extruded teeth
An extruded tooth is one that has suffered significant trauma, and has partially come out of its socket. Such a dislodged tooth can be saved if the nerve and blood vessels continue to be attached to the tooth.

What to do
Visit your dentist immediately, and take the tooth with you. Your dentist will clean the socket, and then place the tooth back. He may use some kind of support like a plastic splint, to stabilize the tooth and keep it in place. If there is damage to blood vessels or nerves, then a root canal treatment may be necessary.

Fractured teeth
Teeth can fracture when you bite something hard, or when you fall down and hurt your teeth. They can also be cracked, or break because of trauma to the mouth, or because of cavities that make the tooth weak. Tiny fractures in a tooth are barely noticeable, and don’t involve pain.  However, if a large portion of the tooth chips or cracks, there may be some pain because of damage to the nerve. The pain can be either consistent or intermittent.

What to do
Visit your dentist immediately. Your dentist will determine if there is any danger to the nerve.  You can increase your chances of retaining your tooth by saving the pieces, and stopping bleeding using a piece of gauze.

Your dentist will treat the fractured tooth, depending on the kind of fracture it is. For instance, minor cracks may be treated with light polishing to smoothen out any bumps. A cracked tooth can be fixed using filling material. In case of a serious break however, you dentist may perform a root canal treatment to remove the nerve that has been exposed. This may be followed by placement of a crown to help you eat and chew.

Avulsed teeth
An avulsed tooth is nothing, but a knocked out tooth. It is entirely possible to save the tooth if you act fast and visit the dentist as quickly as possible.

What to do
Save the tooth, and remember to pick it up by the crown, and not the root end. Don’t wash or clean the tooth. Place it in a jar of milk, or place it back into the socket if you can. Your dentist will clean out the socket, and then place the tooth in the socket. Splints or brackets will be used to hold the tooth in place while it reattaches.