How Can Dental Trauma be Treated?

Dental trauma is a physical injury to your gums, teeth, and the alveolar bone, the bone holding your tooth’s socket, or damage to the soft tissues of the tongue and the lips.

Most cases of dental trauma can be caused by accidents such as vehicle collisions, playing sports, or falls. Others may be caused by violent accidents such as physical abuse or fighting.

What is The Treatment?

Dental trauma treatment depends on the nature of the trauma you are experiencing. The injuries to your child’s mouth and teeth should be examined by your pediatric dentist in Scarsdale, NY. This is in case the tooth has sustained damage or become loose. In other cases, while the damage to the tooth might be visible, the neighboring tooth may have injuries that are not visible unless detected by a dental exam.

The treatment to the affected tooth is as follows:

• For a fractured or chipped tooth, the dentist may use a tooth-colored filling to replace the lost part of the tooth. If a large amount of your crown has been lost, then an artificial cap or crown may be used instead.
• Injuries to your child’s back teeth include fractured cusps may require a full-coverage crown or a root canal.
• For an exposed pulp, one may require a root canal.
• For more severe injuries such as split teeth, the tooth has to be removed completely.
• The dentist can restabilize dislodged teeth
• Children younger than 12 years may not need a root canal as their teeth are still developing and maybe healthy with time. However, the dentist will monitor them carefully to check whether additional treatment is needed. If you stay a bit longer, then the odds diminish considerably.
• A knocked-out tooth can be replanted if you act quickly. If you receive treatment for this dental trauma in Scarsdale, NY, within 30-4 minutes, there is a greater chance of saving your child’s tooth.

It is important to note that the tooth must be picked by the crown and not the root. Your dentist will place the tooth back at its socket, and also a stabilizing splint will be placed for a few weeks.

What Are the Types of Dental Trauma?

Dental trauma can be classified according to how severe the injury is, which in turn depends on the type of tissue that has been damaged and the extent of the damage. The most common types of dental trauma in Scarsdale, NY, include:

• Broken Teeth

Broken teeth are traumas that involve damage to your teeth but do not include dislocations of your teeth. The teeth can be cracked, chipped, fractured, or torn off.

• Concussion

A concussion is the mildest type of injury that can be inflicted on your child’s tooth. The periodontal ligament fibers may be strained or severed but have enough support to keep them intact on its socket. This tooth may exhibit some sensitivity to diagnostic tapping, not to touch. The gums around this tooth might be slightly swollen or even bleed.

• Subluxation

A subluxation can also b termed as an aggravated concussion. In this type of dental trauma, there is greater damage to the ligament, with more fibers and capillaries being severed. The tooth is still in place, but noticeable movement can be noticed. In addition, one can feel pain when the tooth is touched or tapped.

• Extrusive Luxation

A luxation involves sufficiently severe damage to dislodge the tooth. This involves a partial rapture of the periodontal ligament and damage to the dental pulp’s blood vessels and nerve fibers.

• Lateral Luxation

This involves the displacement of the tooth along any direction that is perpendicular to the tooth’s longitudinal axis. As a result, the fracture of the alveolar bone is always present in lateral luxation. In addition, there is a partial or total laceration of the periodontal ligament and the pupal neurovascular connections.

• Intrusive Luxation

In intrusive luxation, the tooth is driven further into the alveolar socket. The alveolar bone is crushed and fractured. The periodontal ligament, the nerve connections, and the pulp blood are torn off and crushed. The tooth may become completely submerged into the jawbone in some cases and may even penetrate the nasal cavity.

If you or your child experiences one of the above dental traumas, you can seek treatment from Smile Scarsdale Pediatric Dentistry & Family Orthodontics