6 Steps to Take After Knocking Out a Tooth

Teeth can be easily knocked out while playing contact sports or fighting or if you are involved in a road accident. The following steps can maximise the chance that an emergency dentist can restore the tooth.

1. Handle the Tooth With Care

Always handle a tooth by gripping the crown (the top part that shows above the gum) rather than the root. The root (the lower part of the tooth that sits in the gum) is very fragile and can be damaged if you touch it with your fingers.

2. Wash the Tooth With Water

It is important to keep a knocked out tooth clean, but you shouldn't use any cleaning products or soap, as these could damage the delicate root of the tooth. Rinse the tooth with plain, clean tap water. You don't need to dry the tooth after washing it; in fact, it is better for the tooth to stay damp.

3. Put the Tooth Inside Your Mouth

Next, put the tooth back inside your mouth. The saliva that your mouth produces has enzymes that fight bacteria that could attack the tooth. Keeping a tooth in your mouth also prevents it from drying out, which helps to avoid cell death.

Ideally, you should situate the tooth in the socket it fell out of. However, sometimes the socket is too sore to make this possible. In this case, hold the tooth against your cheek. Be careful to avoid swallowing it — although swallowing a tooth is unlikely to harm your health, a dentist cannot save a tooth once you have swallowed it.

4. Store the Tooth in a Glass of Milk

If your mouth is too sore to store your tooth there, place it in animal milk, such as cow or goat milk. Water has a non-ideal pH for storing a tooth over the long term, but milk can prolong the time until the root of the tooth starts to die.

5. Schedule an Emergency Dental Appointment

After knocking out a tooth, it is important to see a dentist as soon as possible. As soon as you have found the tooth, cleaned it, and put it somewhere safe, call an emergency dentist to schedule an appointment.

6. Use the Right Pain Medications

Knocking out a tooth is often painful, so you might want to take pain medication to get some relief. Avoid taking aspirin, which can increase oral bleeding. Instead, take paracetamol to get safe pain relief.