Having your tooth knocked out doesn’t mean that you have to resign yourself to having a gap in your smile or getting a replacement tooth. In many cases, we can reimplant your natural tooth, provided you act fast. Our emergency dentist in Manhattan outlines some of your options below. Together, we can work to save your smile.
What Factors Affect Tooth Reimplantation?
In most cases, Group Health’s dentist can reimplant a tooth that has been completely knocked out. However, there are certain factors that can affect the success of the reimplantation:
- Time
- Tooth Condition
- Patient Age
- Reason for Loss
Time Since You Lost the Tooth
The sooner you can reach us after losing a tooth, the better chance we have of getting it back in your mouth. Ideally, try to see our emergency dentist within 30 minutes. If the tooth has been out of the socket for more than two hours, it’s less possible to reimplant it.
Condition of the Tooth or Socket
If your whole tooth comes out in one piece and doesn’t appear cracked or damaged, we can reimplant it in your mouth. By contrast, if it’s badly damaged or if you injured the socket where the tooth fell out, we’ll have a harder time placing it back where it belongs.
Age of the Person Who Lost the Tooth
Children are meant to lose their baby teeth, so if your child is under the age of five and knocks out a tooth, we typically won’t reimplant it. However, we’ll need to make sure that the space left behind is preserved for when the adult tooth comes in. Our general dentistry team can talk about solutions for young patients to preserve their long-term oral health after the loss.
Reason You Lost the Tooth
Many people lose teeth from incidents like car accidents or getting hit while playing sports. These are emergency cases when our Manhattan dentist can likely reimplant any missing teeth.
Other patients lose teeth due to underlying conditions like gum disease. Remember how we mentioned that the condition of the socket makes a difference? The same principle applies here. If your tooth fell out because of issues with your gums, reimplanting it won’t solve the problem. Our periodontic dentistry services instead work to improve the health of your gums.
What Should You Do to Help Our Emergency Dentist?
If you cannot see us within 30 minutes of losing your tooth, that doesn’t mean you’re out of luck. Take the following steps to increase the chances of successful reimplantation:
- Keep the Tooth Moist: Place it in a glass of milk or saliva.
- Rinse the Tooth: Without scrubbing or touching the root, gently rinse with water.
- Reimplant It Yourself: Try to place the tooth back in the socket, if possible.
- Apply Cold: Place a cold compress on the affected area to reduce swelling and pain.
Call Now If You Lost a Tooth in New York
Our Manhattan emergency dentist can fit you into the schedule right away to work on getting a lost tooth back in place. You have a good chance of keeping your natural tooth if you see us fast and take some simple precautions. Don’t assume all is lost—contact us for immediate care.
