Whenever an injury to the face or teeth occurs, it’s imperative to begin treatment immediately, otherwise, permanent damage can occur that will affect the patient for the rest of their life. If you or someone in your family suffer this type of injury, you may want to consider seeing a Vancouver dentist to assess the damage.
Diagnosing and Assessing the Damage
An injury to the face or teeth can have wide-reaching effects to the teeth, jaw, and facial bones. The first step to assessing the situation is obviously taking an oral history of what occurred if the patient is able to provide this. Otherwise, a physical exam and a full set of x-rays are the next best thing.
A thorough medical and dental history of the patient is also important so that any pre-existing conditions can be taken into consideration when developing a treatment plan.
When a facial injury occurs, we generally place it into one of the following three categories:
Soft Tissue Injury
This type of injury most often presents as visible injuries such as lacerations or cuts, bruises, and swelling to the facial structures such as teeth, gums, cheek, tongue etc. The initial treatment includes cleaning the wounds to allow for a better view, then if necessary, using stitches to repair the injury.
Depending on the severity of the soft tissue injury, antibiotics and pain killers may be prescribed to keep the patient comfortable. In other cases, oral rinses or other methods may be used to promote healing.
Jaw Injury
This type of injury occurs when there is a fracture or dislocation to the jaw bone (mandible) or upper facial bones that are connected to the mandible. These types of injuries can be very simple to correct, such as in the case of a dislocation. The bones can be popped back into the correct position and usually don’t require any further treatment. In the case of more severe injuries, surgical intervention may be necessary.
We’ve all heard of someone having their jaw wired shut – this is a fairly common practice for jaw injuries, because it stabilizes the bones and teeth so that healing can occur without disruption.
Dental Injuries
Any time an injury occurs to the teeth or gums, this is considered a dental injury. These injuries can range from something minor such as a chip or crack, to very serious injuries such as a broken or knocked out tooth. As well, fractures can affect the dentin and tooth pulp, which can lead to permanent damage and tooth loss.
Treatment Goals
The main goal in treating facial and dental injuries, is to preserve the natural teeth whenever possible, and avoid tooth loss. This is the primary goal, followed by treating the esthetic issues that can arise from these types of injuries.
Once all of the issues have been diagnosed, the next step is to come up with a treatment plan. How these injuries are treated will depend on several factors including the age of the patient. Treatments are different for baby teeth and adult teeth, because the development of the tooth roots will be different between the two. Regardless, there are things you can do to help treat an injury as soon as it occurs, and also to help prevent an injury from occurring in the first place.
Prevention
If you or your children are involved in any type of activity or sport that could potentially lead to a facial or dental injury, it’s imperative that you where protective gear such as helmets and mouth guards, so that if some type of contact injury does occur, the face and teeth are protected.
General lifestyle changes, such as reducing the intake of sugar and other food that can lead to tooth damage, and increasing your intake of good foods that contain calcium and vitamin D (such as milk, cheese etc.) can help keep your teeth strong so that if an injury does occur, the risk of permanent or severe damage is reduced.
And of course, proper dental hygiene and regular checkups at Enhance Dental Centre will help keep your teeth in good shape, and prevent issues that could make them more vulnerable to injury.
So what should you do if a dental or facial injury does occur?
Immediately Following an Injury
If someone you know has a dental injury, it’s important to take whatever steps you can right away, to help prevent additional injuries. If a soft tissue injury occurs, the area should be gently rinsed and cleaned and the patient should see a doctor or dentist immediately.
If a tooth is knocked out, rinse it in cool water then try to place it back into the socket, then see a dentist immediately. If the tooth cannot be placed back in the socket, soak it in milk (never wrap the tooth or root damage could occur), and bring it with you to Enhance Dental Centre.
If a jaw injury occurs, don’t try to move the jaw. Have the patient keep as still as possible, and head to the emergency department immediately.
Post-Treatment
Once the patient has received treatment for their injury, the recovery period can sometimes be long and painful. For that reason, it’s important for the patient to take it easy and follow any orders provided by the dentist or doctor. This includes taking prescription medications, applying ice to the injury, and getting enough rest to allow the injuries to heal.
Follow-up treatment with a dentist and/or doctor will likely be required to ensure there are no lasting injuries to the teeth that could cause problems later in life.
Summary
Oral and facial injuries can range from minor to major depending on what caused the injury. It’s important to take the proper precautions to protect your face and teeth, and if you do suffer an injury, have it treated as soon as possible at Enhance Dental Centre. Our dentists are experts in diagnosing and successfully treating facial and dental injuries.
We hope you enjoyed another article by our Vancouver dentist!
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