Steps To Take When Your Child Loses A Permanent Tooth

Children usually love the process when they lose their baby teeth, but it surprises everyone if they lose a permanent tooth by accident. Both children and parents may feel afraid when this happens, but you should stay calm. 

When your child experiences tooth damage, you need to respond immediately. Having a plan when a permanent tooth is knocked out helps protect your child’s smile. It also prevents unnecessary anxiety. The knocked-out tooth may have a chance to reattach to the proper jaw position.

Your child’s smile restoration depends on quick actions to save their knocked-out tooth.

Permanent teeth should not move or shake in place.

When children’s permanent teeth wobble, they need attention unless an injury causes the condition, because regular healthy teeth should stay securely fit.

Your baby’s teeth stay slightly movable due to the periodontal ligaments and small holding muscles following the roots. A movable tooth that changes position by more than 1 mm shows increased mobility and may result from trauma or disease.

What Causes My Child’s Permanent Tooth To Become Unstable

Your child’s permanent teeth appear loose for medical reasons:

• Gum disease is a result of poor oral hygiene
• Complications of osteoporosis of the jaw bone
• Certain drugs known as bisphosphonates produce adverse side effects
• Untreated or uncontrolled diabetes
• A build-up of dental plaque
• Sudden injury or impact
• Tough jaw movements during tooth grinding

What Causes Missing Permanent Teeth?

Hypodontia represents a developmental trouble that involves the total loss of 6 teeth. The medical team describes an absence of six teeth as oligodontia, defining anodontia as the complete loss of all adult teeth.

What to do when your child loses a permanent tooth?

Successfully reimplanting an intact fallen tooth depends on healthy, bacterial-free root tissues; your dentist can restore it if you preserve the tooth immediately. Reinserting an avulsed tooth brings significant risk to the developing permanent tooth present below the surface. Your dentist needs to examine an avulsed permanent tooth before any reinsertion attempts. Following specified crucial steps will lead to successful results.

First Things First: Stay Calm!

A child’s accidental loss of a permanent tooth may cause panic, but maintaining composure at all times remains the most essential step. Young children observe your emotions, so your immediate presence and quick actions will help them deal with the situation.

The steps to follow when suffering from a knocked-out tooth.

You should handle multiple emergencies in the following way when your child loses a permanent tooth:

• Grasp and retrieve the tooth from the white visible crown area of the mouth instead of the root through a careful tooth search.
• Wash the tooth using milk or water while avoiding a scrubbing motion and avoiding soap usage. 
• You need to clear away debris from the tooth but handle the area softly to protect potential reattachment tissues.
• After cleaning the tooth, gently insert it back into the original socket while your child bites down a clean cloth or gauze and keeps it in place. Place the misplaced tooth in milk first or tuck it gently between the gum tissue and the jaws when tooth storage is impossible.
• Contact your dentist immediately for reinserting the tooth because the best results occur when tooth reinsertion occurs within thirty minutes.

What Happens If the Tooth Can’t Be Saved?

A tooth cannot be preserved when it has spent too much time outside the mouth or when root damage occurs. But don’t worry! Several restoration options exist to give your child back their smile, and our team will help you select the best fit.

1. Space Maintainers

A space maintainer becomes an option for your child when they need to preserve the gap before receiving their permanent teeth. The small device is a barrier that stops other teeth from entering the vacant space. The treatment maintains the prepared area for future deployment of lasting oral solutions.

2. Dental Implants

A dental implant is an advantageous tooth replacement approach for mature children who have finished their growth. The permanent dental implants serve as natural tooth replacements that assist in stabilizing the jaw structure while maintaining bone health. Such restorations operate as standard teeth do and ensure extended durability.

3. Bridges

A dental bridge is one possible alternative because it requires surrounding teeth to act as supportive structures for the replacement tooth.

Bridges present a solid, permanent solution for function restoration and aesthetic maintenance.

The teeth of maturity do not regenerate after loss.

Humans have only one complete set of adult teeth that cannot regenerate after tooth loss.

You should preserve a lost permanent tooth for immediate dentist evaluation, since they might successfully restore or place it back. You may choose to seek a tooth implant from your pediatric dentist. A consultation will be necessary for this procedure. 

Due to their developmental stage, children cannot receive implant placement. The surgery exists solely for adult patients after they stop experiencing bodily growth.

Tooth Reattachment Options

The dentist will secure a loose tooth using a metal or plastic splint to maintain proper placement because this treatment helps develop new ligaments while healing. Your dentist will decide when to remove the split, which typically occurs after a few weeks of treatment.

Reattachment of a knocked-out tooth becomes unsuccessful when the root sustains damage or death. There exist a few options for gap replacement that provide dental solutions.

Your dentist places three components through the implant process to provide an artificial tooth that functions like your natural adult teeth.

Your dentist connects a bridge between surrounding teeth, resulting in an appealing false tooth inserted into the space.

Conclusion

Regeneration procedures such as implants and bridges regularly serve adult patients, while pediatric or teen patients need temporary retainers in their tooth gaps.

Contact your child’s dentist during a dental emergency to check whether any treatment should be conducted after a loose adult tooth.

Our doctors at Calallen Pediatric Dentist possess extensive experience treating emergencies that our patients of record encounter. We will review any previous trauma experiences during your child’s routine visit to determine strategies that prevent adult tooth loss issues.