Accidents and Fixing Loose Teeth

If you are involved in any accident, you may injure your teeth just like you would injure any other part of your body. Often called knocking a tooth loose, this occurs whenever the tooth or the jaw bone is injured, usually hit or otherwise damaged. When this occurs, the teeth can become loose, even if the tooth is not what was hit. For example, if you were in a car accident that injured your jaw bone, the teeth can become loose due to the loss of connection between the teeth and the bone underneath.

Fixing Loose Teeth
Fixing loose teeth that result from injury can be easy or it can be difficult. It all depends on the extensiveness of the injury to the mouth and how loose the tooth is. Here are some things to keep in mind.

• To learn the extensiveness of the tooth’s damage, an x-ray is required. Dentists are looking to see if the bone is broken or if there is any gap between the positioning of the tooth and the underlying bone.
• If the tooth has moved out of the normal position, dentists may be able to fix the position using just a finger and pressure on the tooth.
• It may be necessary to create some type of stabilization of the loose tooth. Fixing loose tooth conditions like this may or may not require the use of a dental apparatus, depending on the extensiveness of the injury. This procedure is called splinting.
• Time is also necessary. Fixing loose teeth takes time. In fact, it can take a variety of steps to improve the health of your teeth, but time is the most important. It takes time for the connection to rebuild and for the gums to come back into position with the tooth.

The good news is that many people can overcome this condition without the loss of their teeth. If the condition is severe, it is less likely that you will be able to keep the tooth. Unless the tooth can be set into place and is still being held in somewhat by the gums or the bone underneath, it is possible to lose the tooth. However, injury to your mouth heals like the rest of the body. Fixing loose teeth is just one step on the road to improving dental health. Be sure that your teeth have a healthy atmosphere to heal in, by reducing the amount of bacteria present.