Your child will always be seen promptly for a dental emergency. While dental trauma doesn't occur very frequently, Southmoor Pediatric Dentistry sets aside time every day to handle emergency care.

Here are the more common types of oral and dental trauma and how to provide first aid:

Oral Lacerations (cuts in the mouth)

Cuts in the mouth can be alarming because they bleed quite easily. A small amount of bleeding, mixed with a lot of saliva, always looks worse than it is. If your child has a cut in the mouth, rinse your child's mouth with water several times. The good news is that oral lacerations heal quite well and often do not need stitches. Even lacerations of the tongue heal well quickly.

Primary Teeth

Chipped Primary Tooth

It's common for infants and young children to fall and hit their mouths. When a baby tooth is chipped, your child generally doesn't need to be seen by the doctor immediately. Often the chipped portion of the tooth will need to be smoothed as a matter of comfort for your child. Call our office to schedule an appointment at your convenience.

Primary Tooth Knocked Out

If a primary tooth is knocked completely out of your child’s mouth, apply gentle pressure with a clean, wet washcloth to the socket to help stop the bleeding. We don’t recommend trying to re-implant the tooth as this carries a high chance of infection and damage to the permanent tooth that is developing. Call our office to schedule an appointment at your convenience.

Permanent Teeth

Permanent Tooth Chipped

Trauma to permanent front teeth often causes fractures of various sizes. These frequently cause sensitivity to cold and heat, and make eating uncomfortable. If there is an exposure of the nerve, there will be a red dot in the open part of the fractured area. If the nerve is exposed, call our office immediately to schedule an emergency appointment. If there is a chip or fracture where the nerve isn't exposed, we should see your child to evaluate the tooth for possible treatment as soon as office hours allow.

Permanent Tooth Knocked Out

If your child has one or more permanent teeth knocked out, please follow these directions:

1. Hold the tooth by the crown—not the root—and rinse it off with water (cover the drain first)
2. Gently replace the tooth in the socket. Time is of the essence and the most important factor is to get the tooth back into the socket as quickly as possible. However, if you feel you cannot securely place your child's tooth in the socket and there is a possibility that your child may swallow the tooth, we recommend that you place the tooth in milk for transportation to our office.
3. Call our office immediately for an emergency appointment. If it is after normal business hours, call one of our office numbers (303-799-1872 or 303-758-6057), leave a verbal message including your name, your child's name, and your phone number then push the numbers 91 on your touch-tone phone before you hang up. This will page the on call doctor to call you back. Please be sure to remove any blocks you have on incoming calls.

"All the adults make the kids, whatever the age, feel as comfortable as possible."
Sally & Doug