Dealing With a Knocked-out Tooth? Take These Important Steps

Once your permanent teeth push your baby teeth out and take their positions, they’re designed to serve you for the rest of your life. That is, unless an accident happens.

Each year in the United States, about 5 million Americans lose a tooth due to trauma, such as tripping and falling or being struck by a flying object. Whatever the cause, your permanent tooth has become decidedly less permanent. Or has it?

Fortunately, there is a way to save a knocked-out tooth, especially if you act quickly. 

In fact, that’s one of the reasons why Dr. Danny Jeon and the team of dental experts at Tucker Family Dental offer urgent care services — to accommodate patients whose teeth have succumbed to injury.

With that in mind, here’s what you should do if you or a loved one has a tooth that’s been knocked out.

1. Find and rinse the tooth

First, locate the tooth. When you find it, handle it only by the crown and not by the roots because we need to keep the root area alive.

Once you have the tooth by the crown, rinse it with water. Please don’t use any cleaning products on the tooth. Also, use the water to rinse your mouth.

At this point, you or someone else should contact us to let us know you’re coming in for some urgent care, which is available during office hours, Monday-Friday from 9am to 5pm. 

If you lose a tooth outside our office hours, please go to an urgent care center, as time is of the essence: you only have about an hour to save a knocked-out tooth.

2. Place the tooth back in the socket if you can

When you lose a tooth, you’re left with an empty socket. If the tooth is whole and you’ve rinsed your mouth, try to place the tooth back in the socket.

If the tooth slides back in, hold it in place by biting down on a wad of gauze or a teabag. If you have a mouthguard, this is also an excellent tool for keeping the tooth in place.

If it’s not possible to get the tooth back in, don’t force it. Instead, store it between your cheek and gum until you see us — just be careful not to swallow it. The saliva in your mouth is great for keeping the tooth alive.

If none of these options is available, you can store the tooth in a glass of milk (from cows), which can also preserve the nerves and tissues.

3. Get to a dental professional

Once the tooth is secure, now is the time to get moving. As we discussed, you can either come to see us if we're open or go to a nearby urgent care center. 

4. When tooth preservation is secondary

There are times when we’d rather you didn’t try to prioritize preserving a knocked-out tooth. For example, if there’s a lot of bleeding in your mouth that’s showing no signs of stopping, please prioritize getting medical care over tooth preservation.

If you have other injuries from the accident, your tooth can wait. 

The bottom line is that saving your tooth is a great practice if everything aligns. Even if things don’t work out and you’re unable to save the tooth, the good news is that we’ve got some great replacement options, including dental implants that offer superior form and stability.

If you have more questions about what to do with a knocked-out tooth, don’t hesitate to call our office in Tucker, Georgia, at (678) 233-2945. You can also book an appointment online with Tucker Family Dental today.