If your child chips a tooth, you may be wondering what comes next. When dental trauma happens to your child, your dentist can help using restorative dentistry treatment to restore the good health, functionality, and overall strength of a tooth that’s received damage due to dental trauma - including a chipped tooth.
So, don’t panic if your child has chipped a tooth - chips are not uncommon and can happen at any age. In fact, a chipped tooth is one of the most typical reasons that parents bring a child for an emergency dental visit.
First Steps for Treating a Chipped Tooth
Whether a chip is small or large, contact our office. If over half your child’s tooth has broken, call us immediately. You’ll want to start caring for a child with a chipped tooth by rinsing out your child’s mouth using water that’s lukewarm. Then, to reduce any swelling, press a cool or cold compress against your child’s face.
Note that even if the chip looks like it's minor, you still want to make certain your child’s tooth has no serious harm. After all, even the smallest chip or tiny crack can create a lasting challenge for your child’s dental health. A small opening in the tooth surface could exist, even if unseen by the eye, and that small opening could let bacteria into the tooth that can cause a serious infection.
Preserve the Chip Fragment
Once you’ve helped your child with a rinse and cool compress, be sure to preserve the chip fragment if you can. You can bring this fragment with you to your dentist - it could be successfully reattached to your child’s tooth.
If reattaching the chip isn’t possible, your skilled pediatric dentist can smooth or remove any jagged or uneven edges to the tooth, or use dental bonding, a crown or strip crown to fix your child’s chipped tooth.
Bonding Your Child’s Chipped Tooth
Bonding can be used quickly and simply, both for cosmetic reasons and restorative treatment. Repairing chipped teeth is one of the primary uses for children’s dental bonding.
Bonding is as painless as it is easy. Your dentist will use resin, colored to match your child’s tooth, and sculpted to match the tooth for a natural look. Whether bonding is used for primary teeth or for your child’s permanent teeth, this treatment is long lasting, too.
Dental bonding easily covers damage from chips to a tooth’s enamel, and restores the tooth’s shape as well.
If a tooth is damaged severely, endodontic treatment may be necessary to clean the interior of the tooth, and a dental crown may be used to repair and cover the tooth’s exterior.
Get Help with Any Children’s Dental Emergency
When you need help, whether immediately due to an urgent situation, or in order to schedule an appointment as soon as possible, reach out to us - we are here to help. We can handle all your child’s emergency dental needs including chipped or otherwise damaged teeth.
At Dream Smiles Pediatric Dentistry of Gaithersburg emergency pediatric dental service is just a phone call away. Call us at 301-327-1003 or contact us online to request an appointment.