tooth injury treatment, dental injury, teeth injury, mouthguards, dental care, injury prevention, athletes
Tooth injury treatment - to minimize the chances of injury to teeth, athletes in contact and non-contact sports should wear custom-fitted mouthguards and should have regular dental examinations to check for unusual tooth wear. What is the best emergency t
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The severity of a dental injury (fractured, displaced, or avulsed tooth) may not be immediately apparent. Often dental injuries are associated with other head and neck injuries, such as fractured facial bones, concussions, abrasions, bruises, soft tissue lacerations with bleeding, and jaw-joint problems. Thus, the injured athlete should be assessed for medical complications, including his/her ability to spontaneously maintain an airway, poor control of bleeding, shock, broken bones, and neurological impairment. Medical complications take precedence oover dental injuries; therefore, the athlete who exhibits these symptoms should be escorted to an appropriate health-care facility.
After medical concerns are addressed, the extent of the dental injury should be evaluated. Any dental injury has the potential of being serious, and complications may arise weeks or years after the incident. In the case of dental avulsions, the tooth should be immediately recovered and, if clean, replanted, so that it looks like the corresponding tooth on the other side. Hold the tooth by the crown and replace in the socket. Usually the tooth will click back into the correct position. DO NOT TOUCH ROOT SURFACE. If contaminated, rinse the tooth with saline or water before replanting.
The reason for the urgency in replanting is that once the tooth is out of the socket, the likelihood of the body treating the tooth as a foreign object and resorbing the root increases rapidly. If the tooth is replanted immediately, the chances of saving the tooth with a root canal are very good; however, if the tooth is out more than 30 minutes, the chances of success begin to decrease. Teeth that are out for longer than about two hours have a very poor prognosis.
(From a Roundtable on Dental Care and Injury Prevention in Athletes, Sports Science Exchange, Vol. 8 (1997), no. 3)
