After-hours on-call Service
If your child is experiencing a true dental emergency, Cristina B. Georgescu, DDS and Eileen Dano Calamia, DDS can be reached at 914-777-1140. We are available to handle emergency situations for our patients 24/7. If your child appears to be suffering from injuries that extend beyond the mouth, call 911 or take your child to the emergency room.
Here are some dental emergencies that kids often have.
Since they were babies, you’ve seen your child’s teeth grow. Because of this, it can be very upsetting to see them with a toothache, broken tooth, or other dental emergency.
You must know what to do and who to call when time is running out.
We’ve put together a list of 10 common problems that might happen and what you should do in those situations to give you power in a crisis. Here are some tips on how to handle different kinds of dental problems in kids in the best way possible.
1. Cut Lip, Tongue, or Cheek
A good bite is when you chomp down hard on your tongue, lip, or cheek. Even though these things don’t usually happen, this one can make your biggest children scream really loudly. Keep your cool if it does happen.
The first step is to clean the area gently with water. Then, put a cold towel on the hurt area to help keep the swelling under control. If the wound is bleeding, use a clean piece of cotton or cloth to gently press on it.
When the swelling is very bad, pressure alone isn’t enough to stop it. In this case, call your child’s doctor right away to set up an emergency appointment.
2. Tooth that was knocked out
A baby tooth that has been knocked out is not always an issue.
Still, you might need to call your dentist’s office. Even though you don’t need to keep this tooth moist like you would a real tooth, it’s still a good idea to keep it and bring it to your visit.
3. Permanent tooth that was knocked out
It is a real oral emergency if your child has permanent teeth in and one or more of them gets knocked out.
First, make sure your child doesn’t have any other, worse injuries. In some cases, getting hit in the head can cause teeth to fall out. After checking it out, call 911 if you need to.
Once you find the tooth, be careful not to touch the root; only touch the crown. Right now, the most important thing to remember is to keep the tooth wet. If you can get it back into the socket, have your child bite down on a piece of tissue to keep it in place.
Even if you can’t move the tooth, it should still be kept wet. The best thing to do is to put it in a jar of milk or saline solution instead of water. You could also have your child bite down on it and hold it against their cheek. Then, go to the doctor right away if there are no other injuries.
4. Jaw that could be broken or fractured
It is very important to be very careful if you think that your child’s jaw might be broken or cracked. Put a cold compress on their face gently to help reduce the swelling, and try to keep their mouth from moving.
Then, call your dentist right away to set up an emergency appointment.
5. A very bad blow to the head
If your child has taken a hard hit to the head, they are likely to have a problem with their teeth as well. It’s still very important to get your child to the emergency room of the nearest hospital as soon as possible.
This is a dental problem that needs more intense care than the emergency care team for your pediatric dentist can give.
6. A very bad toothache
The pain of a toothache can range from being mild to being very bad. A simple piece of food stuck in your child’s tooth can cause a lot of pain. When they say they have a toothache, rinse their mouth out well to get rid of the germs.
Look inside their lips for food, and if you find any, gently pull it out with dental floss. If this isn’t the cause of the toothache, your child might have a hole, an abscess, or something else. For emergency care, call your dentist right away.
Remember that you should never put ice on your child’s lips or teeth because it could burn the soft tissue there. There is a cold compress that can help with pain and stiffness.
7. Sensitivity of teeth
Suddenly is your child not liking hot or cold foods? There are a lot of different reasons this could be true if that’s the case. For example, the sharp pain they feel when they bite into a painful food could be caused by an injury or a hole in their body.
It’s better to make an emergency appointment at the doctor than to tell them to wait it out. Your child’s dentist will be able to look at the problem, figure out what’s causing it, and help you treat it.
8. Something Stuck in Mouth
If your child has something stuck in their mouth, you should first use floss to try to gently get it out. But remember never to put something sharp near their gums and teeth, which are very tender. See your doctor right away if it won’t move.
9. An abscessed tooth
An abscess in the root of a tooth is an illness that is very painful. If you don’t fix the pus pocket that it makes, it can cause a number of health problems, such as:
- Bad toothache that won’t go away
- Having sensitive teeth
- Fever
- It hurts to bite
- Swelling in the face
- Neck or jaw lymph nodes that are swollen
- Having trouble breathing
It’s possible that your child has a tooth abscess if they have any of these signs. A visit to the dentist can help you figure out what caused the problem and how to treat it. Keep in mind that you need to take your child to the emergency room right away if their abscess is so bad that it makes it hard for them to breathe, gives them a fever, or makes their face swell up.
10.Fillings that are lost or loose
If your older kids have teeth, they can lose them, come loose, or come out completely. This should make you want to make an emergency appointment with your doctor right away. When a filling changes from where it was supposed to be, it shows the tooth below that isn’t protected.
In the impacted area, this can make it very sensitive. As well as that, it can help bacteria and other germs grow, which can cause tooth decay. Getting a new filling as soon as possible is important.