Dental injury: Everything you need to know.
Dental trauma is any injury to your mouth which includes the teeth, lips, tongue, jawbone and gums. Dental trauma consists of several types of injuries such as: jaw fracture, tooth jammed into socket, tooth fracture, tooth knocked loose and chipped tooth.
Types of dental injury?
The most common types of dental trauma are:
Concussion: It is the mildest type of dental injury which can be inflicted. Tooth concussion is usually when one or more teeth are damaged but is not dislodged from the gums. The fibers of the periodontal ligament will be strained and few may be severe. Not enough support remains to keep the tooth intact in the socket so there is no measurable increase in mobility.
Subluxation: It is a tooth that withstands trauma and is mobile but not dislodge. There will be bleeding around the gums of the damaged tooth as well. It is considered an aggravated concussion. The pain is felt when the tooth is lightly trapped and touched where there could be some slight damage to the neurovascular bundle of the pulp.
Broken teeth: It is a dental injury which involves damage only to teeth and usually does not involve dislocations. Teeth can be fractured, chipped, cracked and torn off. It involves only the enamel layer and both the enamel & dentin layers.
Lateral Luxation: It is displacement of the tooth along any direction which is roughly perpendicular to the axial or longitudinal axis of the tooth. It is a fracture to the alveolar bone and a separation from the periodontal ligament-attaches tooth to the alveolar bone which makes the tooth appear to be displaced, either pointing forward or backward along the gum line.
Alveolar Fracture: It is a bone fracture of the alveolar ridge. The tooth socket may or may not be affected with alveolar fracture. It is a serious bone fracture which can affect multiple teeth and even gets worse and can propagate throughout the entire mandible or maxilla.
Signs and symptoms of dental trauma?
Most cases of dental trauma are caused by accidents and some cases are due to being involved in a serious incident. Dental trauma symptoms are:
- Trouble moving jaw or mouth
- Change in the way teeth fit together when close the mouth
- A sharp or rough edge on tooth
- A tooth which is cracked, chipped, out of place or missing and loose
- Bleeding from your lips, gums, face or mouth
3 different ways to treat your dental injury
There are different types of dental trauma injuries which include a cracked tooth, chipped tooth, a broken tooth, fractured tooth and knocked-out tooth. Depends upon the type of tooth injury will determine whether to make the treatment of dental injury. Here are the 3 ways to treat your dental injury are:
- What to do for a knocked-out tooth: if the tooth is completely knocked out, then you should carefully pick it up the crown, being careful to avoid the root. If there is any dirt on the root then gently rinse it off in standing water till it’s clean. Hold a tissue or cotton on top of the tooth to keep it in place, but do not push down and you can place the tooth in a small container of milk or slightly salted water until you get treatment.
- What to do if you lose or break a crown: if you lose or break a crown, then determine whether you need to make an emergency dental appointment or not. Then you should call your dentist immediately and you should be advised to place the crown back onto your modified tooth using a temporary over-the-counter denture adhesive. If it is broken or loses a crown then visit the dentist within one week to avoid the need for another impression to be made as the gum tissues under the missing crown may grow.
- What to do if you crack or break a tooth: Cracked tooth must be treated promptly by a dentist and may require root canal treatment. If you crack or break a tooth, it causes discomfort and it should rinse our mouth out with warm water immediately. Then, apply pressure to stop any bleeding, and place a cold compress on the area to reduce swelling. Also, try to find any pieces of the broken tooth and wrap it in a wet cloth or gauze and bring it with you to your dental appointment.
