Dental Injuries
What are dental injuries?
When any of the teeth we have is hit or external impact (resulting for example from a punch, hit with blunt object, etc.) Or internal (sudden closing of the mouth, for example by hitting hard the chin), the teeth can tear, break or come loose, increasing mobility, or cracked (broken tooth fragments remaining attached).
Immediate treatment clearly increases the chances of saving the tooth.
What should we do before a dental injury case?
When we suffer an accident that affects the face or near the mouth, we must:
- Check the status of teeth staring at a mirror, or a finger gently touching the tooth crown (visible part of the tooth).
- Search the teeth or fragments thereof that we lack, to take them to the dentist.- Save the tooth or fragment in a clean container with any of the following fluids: blood, saliva, serum, or milk, being of better quality to transport the blood to be shed as a result of tooth loss.
- If you have containers to the transfer, the patient is an adult, and it is conscious, you can save it under your tongue.
- Going to a dentist urgently. The chances of successfully re-implant a tooth that has been lost by an accident increase greatly the earlier any reimplantation (ideally, do it before the first half hour after trauma).
- If an accident occurs as a result of a significant injury of the lips, gums, or bone supporting the teeth (dental-alveolar fracture), you may need to be examined and treated by a maxillofacial surgeon, as well as rule out serious facial injuries requiring emergency treatment (broken jaw, wounds or suture complex that affect important areas, etc.).
credit to: Dr. Ramón José Galán Hernández, Dr. Jens Kolsen Petersen, Lisa taylor