Thursday, May 7, 2009

Smile!

Just a little hint from a tooth professional. If a tooth (baby or permanent) gets knocked completely out (with the root still attached) the best thing to do is not rinse it off but to put it right back in the tooth socket (if it is muddy or something you can rinse it with contact lens solution). If the socket is too swollen or painful to put it back in then keep it in a little cup with contact lens solution (if that's not available I think milk is an ok second choice, but not water). Then head straight to the dentist. A lot of times the tooth will be ok, they can splint it to adjacent teeth and the bone will grow around it and hold it back in place. This happened today to my neighbor's little boy (a front baby tooth was completely knocked out). I was so glad I was home and could tell her what to do (and watch her other kids while she went to the dentist.)
If the tooth is broken off then there's really no point in taking special care of the broken off piece, you can't glue it back on. (This happened to Ethan last year, chipped a big piece of his front tooth off - - the school nurse saved it in milk, but there's no way to fix that!)

No comments: