How Emergency Dentistry Can Help With a Knocked-Out Tooth

You’re playing a sport or driving along when wham, a sudden impact knocks one of your teeth clear out. This painful occurrence can be scary, but there is hope! 

Getting proper care for your missing tooth quickly can help ensure your health and well-being, relieve bothersome symptoms, and restore your smile.

Our experienced team of dentists at Swinney Dental in Tyler, Texas, offers emergency services to help you get the injury treatment you need without waiting.

Take a few minutes to learn more about emergency care for your knocked-out tooth.

What to do immediately after your injury

After your tooth has been knocked out, seeing our team within 30 minutes is ideal as far as potentially saving your tooth. So call our office immediately.

Leading up to your appointment, consider these steps:

If you can find the missing tooth, pick it up by the top chewing surface and not the root. Don't leave it sitting on the ground or throw it out.

If the tooth appears dirty, gently rinse it using only water. Avoid scrubbing or drying the tooth, and don’t wrap it in a cloth or towel.

If possible, ease the tooth back in place temporarily. To do so, slowly push it into the proper place with your fingers. If it feels like it’s stable enough, gently bite down on it.

Keep the tooth moist. If you can’t get it back in its socket, place it in a small container of milk or an emergency tooth preservation kit.

If you can take care of your tooth in these ways, there’s a good chance it’ll survive, and we won’t need to use an artificial restoration.

Emergency treatment for your knocked-out tooth

When you arrive for your emergency care, our team will examine the treatment area and may take X-rays. If your tooth can be re-implanted successfully, that might be all we need to do. 

If your tooth remains in place, but loosely, we may splint it to surrounding teeth. And if the tooth can’t be reimplanted, it can be replaced with a temporary denture. From there, once the socket has healed, we may recommend a bridge or implant. 

Our team will help you weigh out your options, so that you can make the best choice for your needs.

To learn more about tooth loss injuries or to get the emergency care you need, call our dental team at Swinney Dental. You can also schedule an appointment using the convenient online booking feature on our website.