Traumatic tooth injuries can occur with little warning. When you have a knocked-out or dislodged tooth, you need to know what to do and where to go. Trust both our locations at Southwest Endodontics to provide you with the care you need.
We offer treatment for traumatic tooth injury Geneva IL, and Orland Park, IL residents can trust in emergencies.
Endodontists classify teeth injuries based on the tooth’s position after the injury. Avulsed and dislodged teeth are common injuries at both our Southwest Endodontics locations. We can quickly treat these conditions to help save the affected tooth.
What dental professionals call an avulsed tooth, most people refer to as a “knocked-out” tooth. This type of injury happens when the whole tooth falls out of the jaw. To save the tooth from becoming separated permanently from your jaw, replace it in the empty socket. Do not touch the root part of the tooth.
If you cannot place it back into the socket, keep it moist in a milk container, emergency tooth-saving liquid, or saliva. Skip the tap water to soak the tooth. Hold the tooth between the cheek and jaw inside the mouth if you don’t have a container. Do not allow young children to do this, as they may swallow the tooth.
Call your nearest Southwest Endodontics location to tell us that you are coming and need care for a knocked-out tooth. We have the best chance of saving your tooth if you can get to us within 60 minutes after the accident.
A dislodged tooth happens when the tooth pushes further into the gums or pulls partially out of the socket. This type of injury requires endodontic attention, too. As with an avulsed tooth, call your closest Southwest Endodontics location to get your dislodged tooth examined.
Treatment for traumatic injuries depends on the age of the person affected. Adults may need root canal therapy to treat a tooth. Children have different dental structures than adults and require specific pediatric endodontic treatment.
Treatment for adults with traumatic tooth injury stems from the damage done to permanent teeth. For dislodged teeth, we will attempt to reposition the tooth and hold it in its correct place. You must return for a follow-up visit, during which the doctor will evaluate the health of the tooth and determine if you need root canal treatment to correct damage to the tooth’s pulp.
For knocked-out teeth, we may need to perform a root canal to fix pulp damage and replace the tooth in the socket. How long you waited to get treatment, how you stored the tooth in transit, and if the tooth remained intact factor into the type of treatment our endodontists can provide to try to save the tooth.
Children’s teeth may still have growing pulp and roots that require distinctive treatment from adults if they injure a tooth. To get the best care for a child with a tooth injury, you should go to a pediatric endodontist who has experience working with kids and saving their teeth.
Our pediatric endodontists will try to save a child’s injured tooth by using either apexogenesis or apexification, depending on the development of the pulp in the tooth and the level of damage.
Apexogenesis encourages continued growth of the pulp and roots in the tooth. Older adult teeth that have better-developed roots respond best to apexogenesis treatment.
However, if either the root or pulp has sustained severe damage, the endodontist may perform apexification. This process cleans the damaged pulp from the tooth and closes the root tip of the tooth. Since the development of the root and tooth walls stops after apexification, you need to ensure that your child takes care to avoid future damage to this tooth. The treated tooth will not have the same strength as its fully developed neighbors.
Time is essential in saving an injured tooth. At Southwest Endodontics, we provide immediate care for traumatic tooth injury Orland Park IL and Geneva, IL. Ideally, try to reach us within an hour, especially if you have an avulsed tooth. Call our Geneva or Orland Park endodontic locations to get treatment to save your injured tooth with expert endodontic care.
