Dental Trauma

Smiles4KidsBlog

As our kids go from crawling to walking to running, there are lots of falls along the way. At first, we stand behind them, trying to prevent a tumble with each new step. After a while, the falling just becomes a part of growing and the little bumps and bruises are routine. However, every once in a while, one of these falls may result in trauma to the mouth. Actually, according to the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, over 25% of all school children have dental trauma and 33% of adults (under the age of 19) experience dental trauma.

The most common type of dental trauma is just when a child falls, gets hit, or runs into something and bumps the tooth, this is called luxation. This is when the tooth is moved slightly within the socket, but most commonly doesn’t result in any long term problems. Occasionally, though, there are more serious issues that can occur.

What should you do if your child has dental trauma? Give us a call. Chances are, we will want to check everything out and make sure all looks good. Sometimes post trauma, there are fractures of the root and bone that we cannot see with our instruments and eyes. In those cases, we need to take an x-ray to confirm everything looks ok.

In any case, don’t panic if your child takes a big fall and hits his/her teeth. It has happened to all of us. Just remember to follow up with your dentist ASAP!!

In the future, we will get into more details about the different types of fractures and traumas. Stay tuned!