Dental Trauma Management in Brampton (A Brief Guide)

Dental trauma often occurs due to injuries caused by accidents or when playing sports. Most of these injuries cause chipped or fractured teeth. However, these incidents may also dislodge the tooth or knock it out fully, making these injuries more severe. How these are treated depends on the location, type, and severity of the injury. No matter how bad the situation is, you should immediately get examined by a dentist familiar with effective trauma management in Brampton. This is especially true as your surrounding teeth may have additional unnoticed injuries that may only be identified after a thorough examination. In this post, we discuss how to assess dental injuries, identify their type, and how your dentist will handle them. Steps Followed by Your Dentist for Dental Trauma Management Here are the vital steps followed by your family dentist to assess and identify your injury and effectively manage your trauma.   Evaluation of Dental Injuries  When you visit a dental office in Brampton, you will first provide your relevant dental history. This may include any record of traumatic injury. For example, you may mention missing teeth, orthodontic work, and dental fillings. Then the dentist will ask you to bite down. This helps to find any trouble caused due to the occlusion of teeth. (Occlusion is how the lower and upper teeth fit together.) They will also look for any sign of maxillofacial injury that requires appropriate imaging. Damage to the jaws or face is referred to as a maxillofacial injury. Your dentist will also check any cavities in order to detect anomalies in lips or other oral organs such as the mouth or gums. This is common in the case of tooth fractures or if any objects (like gravel or dirt) are in the lips or cheeks. These can further complicate your wounds. Next, the dentist will evaluate every tooth and document the findings. For accurate documentation, clinical images are taken during this assessment phase. However, this is done only after getting consent from the patient. Types of Dental Trauma & Ways to Manage Them  Here are the different types of dental injuries and how they are managed. Injuries of Pulp and Hard Tissues of Teeth The severity of the injury is assessed by the dentist depending on the condition of the fractured teeth, pain, as well as detection of any infection. When the pulp is injured, the red soft tissue of the tooth is visible. The pulp is the connective tissue mass present in the middle of the tooth, directly beneath the layer of dentin. (Dentin is one of the tissues that make up a tooth.) In that case, the dentist needs to take inside pictures of the teeth to identify any cracks. In such cases, tooth restoration or root canal therapy is recommended for trauma management. Tooth Subluxation This involves abnormal mobility of the loose tooth in the socket and causes pain and discomfort. That is why you must consult a dentist to stabilize this tooth and get first aid. The dentist may also prescribe painkillers based on your injury’s severity. You will need to consume liquid food until your symptoms are controlled. Tooth Extrusion  This is the partial displacement of the tooth from the socket. Local anaesthesia is prescribed by the dentist to manage pain. If required, they may also recommend applying a splint. (A technique known as periodontal splinting is used to bind loose teeth together. This helps them become one unit that becomes stronger and more stable than single teeth.) As with subluxation, a liquid diet is also recommended until you recover. Fracture of the Tooth  An injury in the tooth may also lead to a horizontal fracture of the root. In fact, the fracture’s location will determine the long-term health of your tooth. The closer the fracture is to the tip of the root, the better the chance of success; likewise, a fracture closer to your gum may cause severe damage. Often stabilization with the help of a splint is necessary when the tooth starts to heal. Dental Avulsion This refers to a complete disarticulation of the tooth from the bone socket. If this happens, visit the dentist immediately in order to save the tooth. Make sure you handle this damaged tooth carefully and do not touch the root. Your dentist will assess this tooth and place it back in the socket. They will also check if there is any other dental or facial injury. A stabilizing splint may be inserted later. The dentist may then start you on root canal therapy after one or two weeks. In some cases, if the knocked-out tooth is not found or can’t be treated immediately, you will have to choose other dental therapies to replace it. Hopefully, this post helps you understand the essential steps followed by your dentist when it comes to dental trauma management in Brampton. We have also discussed how to assess and identify the injury, and manage it accordingly. If you think you are suffering from dental trauma, contact us as soon as you can. Besides trauma management, we also handle teeth whitening, general dentistry and cosmetic dentistry in Brampton, all under the same roof. Read our reviews to find out how well we serve our patients.