Emergency Dentist for a Child
You may not be surprised to find out that during childhood almost every child has at least one dental emergency. If your child is always running around with friends, or playing sports, chances are that at some point they will have an accidental oral injury. In case of an emergency, the more prepared you can be as a parent, the better. What counts as a dental emergency? What are your first steps in case of an emergency? Below are some tips to guide you in handling emergency dentist for your child.
Steps to Dealing with a Dental Emergency:
In most cases, dealing with an oral injury is just like dealing with any injury. The first steps you should take are pretty basic and should be taken immediately:
- Control Bleeding. Immediately check the mouth for bleeding. If there is bleeding, try to control it by applying pressure with a clean cloth.
- Clean the Wound. Once the bleeding is under control, try to clean up the wound so you can determine how serious it is.
- Assess the severity of the injury. This is an important step in determining if the accident will require emergency dental care. What is the level of pain? Was there any teeth lost or damaged?
- Call your dentist. Once you have the bleeding under control and an idea of the severity of the injury, call your family dentist and determine if you need to seek out emergency services.
- Loss tooth? Try to save it! If a permanent tooth was lost or knocked out, find the tooth immediately. If you can find the tooth, the first step in saving it is trying to place it back in the socket. If the tooth will not go back in the socket, try to handle it as little as possible. Placing it in a glass of milk will help preserve it. If a permanent tooth is lost, you should go to a dentist immediately and bring the tooth along.
Emergency Visits to the Dentist
While your dentist office will give you the best guidance, if your child’s injury involves losing a tooth, heavy bleeding or a laceration to the face or mouth, you should plan on seeking out emergency dental services as soon as possible. Due to swelling or bleeding, it is not always clear how serious an oral injury is. Making a call to your dentist and acting quickly with an emergency visit could be the difference in preserving a tooth that may be damaged.
How to be Prepared
If you have active children, the best way to be prepared for any and all emergencies, including dental emergencies, is to have a well-stocked first aid kit. The first aid items you would need for a dental emergency are no different than items used in any first aid emergency. To be prepared for a dental emergency you should have the following on hand:
- Gloves
- Clean gauze
- Small clean cup
- Compresses
- Small storage container for a tooth
More on Emergency Dentistry : Emergency Tooth Extraction