While working or playing outside, you may have fallen and broken off a part of a tooth. If so, use the following tips to take care of your broken tooth until you can have it examined and treated by a dentist.

Keep the Tooth Covered

The first thing you should do is take steps to cover the broken stub of your tooth that remains in your mouth. Depending on how deeply and severely the tooth broke, it may have exposed the nerves and core of the tooth.

Leaving the tooth uncovered would expose it to germs that could lead to an infection, and any nerves exposed to air could cause you increased pain.

Cover the tooth with a gauze pad soaked in bottled or distilled water. Do not use plain tap water, as it could contain microbes that could invade and infect the tooth. 

Change the gauze pad whenever it starts to dry out, usually every hour or so. However, if you have any bleeding from the tooth, you may need to change the pad more often.

Save Any Pieces You Find

Once you have taken care of the portion of the tooth that remains in your mouth, you should turn your attention to the fragment that was broken off. If you can find any piece or pieces of the tooth, save them so you can take them to your dentist.

Saving the tooth fragments can serve two purposes. First, it can give the dentist an initial, overall view of the damage done to the tooth. Second, depending on how fast you can get to the dentist and how clean the break, they may be able to reattach the broken off portion of the tooth.

While gathering the tooth fragments, avoid touching the interior section that may contain nerve or blood vessel endings. Avoiding these areas and holding the tooth only where the enamel is located reduces the risk of further damage to the fragment.

Once you have the fragments, keep them moist by placing them in a small container and spitting on them until they are covered. Since your saliva is the tooth's natural moisturizer, it serves as an ideal holding medium for the fragments.

The above tips are meant to be used until you can have your tooth examined by your dentist. If your dentist is unavailable because it is night time or over the weekend, find a service that handles dental emergencies so you can have your tooth looked at and treated promptly.

To learn more, visit http://schillingfarmsdental.com. 

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