Dental injuries and accidents
While contact sports are the obvious source of most dental injuries and accidents, these can also commonly occur as a result of roller-blading, skateboarding, bike-riding and scootering. Injuries can include:
- Loss of teeth
- Soft tissue damage to the gums or lips
- Jaw fracture
- Tooth fractures
If a permanent tooth is knocked out:
- Get your child to the nearest dentist or hospital with the tooth/teeth in milk or saline.
If you're unable to get the child to a dentist within one hour:
- Hold the tooth by the crown (which is the bottom of the tooth).
- Rinse the tooth, if dirty, in milk or saline.
- Don't scrub or touch the root of tooth.
- Replace the tooth in the socket.
- Make sure it goes in the right way - root first.
- Make sure that the tooth is not back to front. You can check this against the next tooth or someone else's tooth.
- Take your child to a dentist or hospital straight away so they can splint the tooth in place.
If your child plays any type of contact sport, he should wear a professionally fitted mouthguard - even during training. Most mouth injuries (including loss of a tooth) due to sport are preventable if a mouthguard is worn.
Find more relevant articles and information about dental care
Last revised: Wednesday, 18 June 2008
This article contains general information only and is not intended to replace advice from a qualified health professional.