Dental Trauma

The treatment changes depending on if it is a baby tooth (primary tooth) or adult tooth (permanent), and what sort of trauma occurred. Never put baby teeth back in or try to reposition them as you may damage the adult tooth which is growing underneath it.

The following applies for adult teeth only:

Knocked a tooth out: Ouch! Try and stay calm. The faster it gets put in, the better

If it has touched the ground, hold it by the crown of the tooth and rinse it as best you can with room temperature milk or solution from the chemist. Do not use plain water as it kills the cells. Do not scrub it
Put it back in! The best place for the tooth to stay alive is in the socket itself. This may sound silly, but make sure it’s the right way (we’ve seen teeth put in backwards before). Otherwise, you can store it in your cheek (don’t swallow it) or in a glass of room temperature milk
Come to us straight away. Don’t worry about making an appointment, the clock is ticking, so we will see you right away. If after-hours, call us on the after-hours line

Trauma to a tooth where its position of the tooth has changed, your bite has changed or the gum around the tooth is bleeding: call for an urgent appointment as we need to assess how much damage has been done and the appropriate treatment
Tooth fracture: This depends on how large the fracture is. If it is just superficial and a little bit sensitive, it is not urgent. If it was a very hard hit or the tooth is now wobbly, we need to assess for bone fracture and other damage. If the tooth is bleeding out of the fracture, this is also an emergency and you need to be seen asap

Note: if you still have the fractured bit of tooth, bring it in! Nothing matches your tooth as well as the tooth itself!

EMERGENCY AFTER HOURS CALLAFTER HOURS EMERGENCY 0474 423 363