What Happens if Your Child Loses a Baby Tooth Prematurally

Some children are accident prone and fall quite often. If your son or daughter is one of these children, then your child may experience a dental injury at a young age. If a baby tooth is knocked out, then this is not a serious issue. However, treatment will be required. Keep reading to learn what will happen when your child sees his or her family dentist. 

The Dentis Will Inspect Your Baby's Mouth

The mouth will first be inspected to investigate the area where the baby tooth has been lost. The dentist will look for serious tears in the gum tissues. If tears are large or if they bleed consistently for several hours, then stitches may be needed to close the wound. Certain types of surgical glues can be used as well, and this is advantageous if your child is young and scared of having sutures secured in the gum tissues. 

The mouth may be x-rayed as well. This is necessary to see if the adult tooth or the jaw has been injured in any way. If the fall was not a serious one, then this is not likely to be the case. The position of the adult tooth is noted as well. If it is close to the surface, then it is ready to erupt soon on its own. The area may be left alone and the situation will be watched closely. In most cases, the adult tooth will emerge naturally and properly like it should.

The Dentist May Insert a Space Maintainer

Id the adult tooth has not started to emerge up into the mouth, then this may present an problem as the rest of the nearby teeth start to emerge. Basically, since there is an open gap where the tooth was lost, the other teeth may start to shift into this space. This is easily accomplished since there will be little to no resistance. This is something that happens if one of the molars, back molars, or other late emerging teeth are lost at a young age.

To help stop this from occurring and causing a malocclusion or lopsided dental issue, something called a space maintainer may be placed in the mouth. The device is a metal loop that sits in the space where the tooth was lost. The loop is attached to a bracket and the bracket is cemented on the tooth on the left or right side of the space. The far edge of the loop gently pushes on the tooth on the other side of the device. 

Space maintainers only sit in the mouth until the adult tooth starts pushing up through the gums. 

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