Saving Your Knocked-Out Tooth

There’s no question about it … getting a tooth knocked out is a truly scary and traumatic experience. It usually happens as the result of some kind of oral trauma, such as a baseball hitting your jaw or tripping and slamming your mouth against a railing. This is known as avulsion, with the knocked-out tooth called an avulsed tooth. The first step is not to panic, but be ready to act quickly. This is a serious dental emergency, and you can’t delay if you want to save the tooth. Following are the steps to take.

First, find the tooth and pick it up by the crown, not the root. Wash it under cold running water for a few seconds if it’s dirty. Put the tooth in a glass of milk to keep it safe. Then, hightail it to the dentist so we can help you get it reattached. This ideally needs to take place in less than an hour — or within minutes, if possible — which reinforces why a knocked-out tooth is such a dental emergency. If you can get to the dentist quickly and keep the tooth in milk, you have a good chance of saving it.

There’s one additional obstacle to consider, however, which is that oral trauma can be a secondary issue to head trauma in injuries of this nature. As important as it is to save the tooth, you should first be evaluated for signs of head injury if the situation warrants it. Once you confirm that head trauma isn’t a factor, the first priority should be getting to the dentist for immediate reimplantation.