Dental Trauma and How to Manage It
When many people hear of dental trauma, they fret in fear. It’s okay to feel a little scared when you imagine the gruesome incident that led to the trauma – though the best thing is it’s easily treatable.
At Greenway Pediatric Dentistry, we have specially trained post-trauma specialists for kids to deal with any dental trauma. Children are often prone to dangerous games and falls. We have to accept that most of them are not as extra careful as adults are, so they may once in a while find themselves sustaining severe facial injuries.
When the injuries lead to a few broken teeth, a dislocated jaw, or lost teeth, it’s classified as dental trauma. Ensure your kid gets immediate trauma management treatment near you as soon as you notice the signs.
Assessment of the Dental Injury
When you get to the dental practitioner, you need to provide your kids’ relevant dental history. This includes any other traumatic injuries previously managed. You will give an account of any missing teeth, previous trauma, orthodontic work, prior root canal therapy, or dental fillings.
The practitioner will ask the patient to bite down on both jaws. It helps to determine any occlusal disturbances and assess if they are new. An altered occlusion is a possible sign of maxillofacial injuries, which must necessitate appropriate imaging.
At this stage of trauma management treatment in Houston, the practitioner usually has an idea of the treatment. A light source is used to check the oral cavity for the lips and other intraoral organs’ anomalies. It’s common for tooth fractures and other objects to be implanted in the lips and cheeks. There could also be gravel and dirt on cut wounds.
Using an FDI notation, the practitioner then examines tooth by tooth and documents the findings. Documentation inessential for reference during the follow-up care. For precise medical record documentation, clinical images are also taken during the assessment.
However, this must be done with the patient’s consent through the relevant privacy procedures.
Classification of Traumatic Injuries
We’ll look into the various injuries likely to arise from traumatic events and how to manage them.
- Hard Dental Tissues and Pulp Injuries
Fractures that only affect the crown and the root might be hard to detect without illuminating light on the teeth or using special equipment.
Therefore, these injuries are best assessed based on: Pain, mobility of the fractured segments, and presence of any infections. When the pulp is injured, the red soft tissue of the tooth might be visible. Here, a general dentist is needed to take the intra-oral pictures to visualize the cracks.
Trauma management treatment might require root canal therapy or a tooth restoration procedure.
- Periodontal Tissue Injuries
Subluxation – this is characterized by the mobility of a loose tooth in the socket. The effects are pain and mobility. Manage it by trying to stabilize the tooth and get to a general dentist asap. You can make a call to our dental office for first aid tips. Stick to a soft diet until symptoms are managed.
Intrusion – This is when a tooth is displaced inside the socket, causing a lot of pain. The intruded tooth can injure the underlying developing tooth bud in milk teeth, affecting the new tooth’s eruption. Here you need to see a general dentist soonest possible. The practitioner can prescribe simple analgesia depending on how severe the injury is.
Extrusion – This the partial displacement of the tooth out of the socket. A pediatric dentist is trained to reposition the extruded tooth. Local anesthesia is prescribed to manage pain. The patient can later be referred to a general dentist for further examination.
Avulsion – Here, the tooth is wholly disarticulated from its bone socket. There is usually a lot of pain, and the tooth can either still be in the socket or have fallen off. The success of reattaching the tooth depends on a few things. The time since the injury, how the avulsed tooth was stored – it should be stored in mild saline water or a glass of milk, and the tooth type – it’s not advisable to replant a primary tooth as it could damage the growing permanent tooth.
- Injury on the Supporting bone
The visibility of the avulsed tooth accompanies the pain here. Seek trauma management treatment near you immediately as you might need maxillofacial surgery. Fractures involving the supporting bone are directly addressed in the emergency department or to a maxillofacial surgeon.