Dental Emergencies:
MY TOOTH WAS KNOCKED OUT
Your 9 year old is out playing, gets hit in the mouth and a front tooth pops out, root and all. WOW!!! So what do you do?
According to Wikipedia ,FOR A PERMANENT TOOTH, place the tooth in a glass of milk. DO NOT CLEAN IT OFF — there are important cells
on the root surface that will help the tooth reattach to the bone. Try to get to the dentist as soon as possible.
Your dentist will drill the tooth and take out the nerve in preparation for a root canal. He will then implant
the tooth back in the socket and stabilize it with a dental splint. The tooth will tighten up, a root canal will
be performed and a filling placed in the back of the tooth.
Failure to do the root canal can be a big problem later on. A condition known as external resorption can develop.
The root of the tooth actually dissolves so that in some period of time the tooth can hang on for a while but the
root of the tooth is really gone and it just looks like normal bone on the x-ray. With no root it is time to
plan on getting a replacement, whether an implant or a bridge, because it won’t hold.
A BABY TOOTH WAS KNOCKED OUT
FOR A PRIMARY (BABY) TOOTH, do not try to put the tooth back. Trying that could cause damage to the permanent tooth
growing underneath the avulsed (popped-out) tooth. So, just leave it out and a permanent one should be coming along soon.
Permanent teeth usually come in at age 6, but I’ve seen them come in as early as age 4 and as late as age 8.