What Your Children Need in Case of Dental Emergency?

Being a parent is not easy and dental emergencies add to the challenges of routine life. Dental emergencies for children can be faced anywhere from the classroom, playground, or even at home. But do not panic, we have a few tips to save the day for you. Keep reading to know more.

Here are 5 Tips for Dental Emergencies

1. Blunt injury with a knock on a front tooth

This is one of the most common troubles children get themselves into. Often while playing, or when learning to walk, children tend to fall and injure their front tooth. The possibilities are:

Bleeding from laceration to a lip
Discolouration in the gums
A tooth may become loose

For first two possibilities, you need to apply a cold compress right away. The bleeding must stop withing a few minutes and discolouration may lighten in due time. For a loose tooth, you need to make sure there are no further injuries.

Contact a dentist as soon as possible. A thorough dental examination is required to assess the level of damage done and its possible solutions.

2. Cracked filling

Dental fillings do crack and come out while eating hard foods. Because you cannot stop children from having candies, a cracked filling might be a possible outcome, especially if it is a silver amalgam. An emergency arises when there is a pain and sensitivity felt after the filling is cracked. Do not feed children extremely hot or cold food or drinks.

Also, a cracked filling might create sharp edges of the remaining filling, which can be harmful to the insides of your child’s mouth. If you can manage, apply some orthodontic wax to the sharp edges. And contact a children’s emergency dentist.

3. Infection, swelling and pain

Tooth carries when left untreated can cause extreme pain and swell the gums in children. Swelling makes it difficult to chew food and the pain may also trigger a fever. Try to comfort your children with a hot compress. And call us at Healthy Smiles Dental Group for immediate diagnosis and treatment.

4. Fallen or chipped tooth

Playground accidents can also knock out a whole tooth. If you can find the tooth, do not try and wash it with water. Use saliva or lukewarm milk to clean it and keep it submerged to maintain the moisture.

If the child still has baby teeth and you should not try to put the fallen tooth back. Rinse their mouth thoroughly and apply bonjela at the injured part. You can use any over the counter pain relief medicine, for children above 6, by the time you reach us. Thorough diagnosis and treatment are required to mend the fallen tooth.

5. Bleeding gums

Long-standing gum diseases can make the gums bleed. If you see discolouration in your child’s gums, it is an emergency. Contact your dentist or dental hygienist for a thorough analysis and treatment. We can fit you straight in as we keep a schedule for emergency appointments in our appointment books.

Our Children dentists are available round the clock to help in case of dental emergencies. For any emergency during work hours, contact us on 03 9877 2035 and after work hours on 03 9380 2903.