Pediatric Traumatic Dental Injuries

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Introduction

Pediatric dental emergencies include broken, chipped, or injured loose teeth.  Pediatric dental emergencies are conditions that cause your child pain or threaten the health of your child’s teeth and gums.  It also includes cracked teeth, bleeding gums, and fillings that have come out.  Dental emergencies require immediate treatment to protect your child’s teeth, nerves, blood vessels, and health.
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Symptoms

Accident and traumatic injury to your child’s teeth and gums can cause pain and bleeding.  Teeth may be chipped, broken, cracked, loose, or knocked out.  Fillings or crowns can come out of place.  Bleeding can occur from a bitten lip or tongue.  A hard impact may break your child’s jawbone.
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Diagnosis

You should take your child to the emergency room of a hospital if he or she experiences bleeding that will not stop or you suspect that your child’s jaw is broken.  Call your child’s dentist’s office if your child experiences a dental emergency.  You should contact your child’s dentist even if he or she does not experience a lot of pain.  Your dentist can examine your child and provide treatments to prevent more extensive damage.
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Treatment

You should contact your dentist to receive emergency dental treatments for your child.  Your dentist can relieve your child’s pain quickly and preserve his or her teeth or help to prevent more damage.  Initially, you should wash your child’s mouth out with warm water and apply a cold dressing to the affected area.  If your child looses a tooth, rinse the tooth with plain water and place it between the lower lip and the lower gum.  If this is not possible put the tooth in a cup of milk and take it with you to your dentist as soon as possible.  Prompt treatment for dental emergencies may help save your child’s natural teeth, prevent infection, and reduce complications.
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This information is intended for educational and informational purposes only. It should not be used in place of an individual consultation or examination or replace the advice of your health care professional and should not be relied upon to determine diagnosis or course of treatment.

The iHealthSpot patient education library was written collaboratively by the iHealthSpot editorial team which includes Senior Medical Authors Dr. Mary Car-Blanchard, OTD/OTR/L and Valerie K. Clark, and the following editorial advisors: Steve Meadows, MD, Ernie F. Soto, DDS, Ronald J. Glatzer, MD, Jonathan Rosenberg, MD, Christopher M. Nolte, MD, David Applebaum, MD, Jonathan M. Tarrash, MD, and Paula Soto, RN/BSN. This content complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information. The library commenced development on September 1, 2005 with the latest update/addition on February 16, 2022. For information on iHealthSpot’s other services including medical website design, visit www.iHealthSpot.com.