Dental avulsion: What is it and why does it happen?

What is dental avulsion and why does it happen?

Dental avulsion is the complete removal of a permanent or temporary tooth from its socket due to severe trauma. It usually occurs most frequently in children between 7 and 9 years of age, but there are also cases where adults, especially athletes, are affected by dental avulsion.

Dental avulsion usually affects only one tooth, but there are exceptions where the impact on the dental area is so severe that it causes multiple falls, while causing injuries to the lips, the mucosa around the alveoli, nerve stability, fractures in the wall of the alveolus and damage to dental aesthetics.

What to do in case of dental avulsion?

1. 1. Keep calm.
   2. Make sure what type of tooth it is. If the tooth is permanent, it should be located immediately; if it is temporary, it is preferable to wait until the permanent tooth emerges.
   3. Locate the tooth. Once it has been located, you should check if it is intact. Also, you should avoid direct contact with the root; to grasp it correctly, you should do so by the crown.
   4. Secure the tooth. To preserve the tooth on the way to the dentist, it can be placed in serum, an aqueous solution or cold milk.
   5. Go to the dentist. This action must be carried out as quickly as possible, since the success of being able to reimplant the tooth in the alveolar bone will depend on it. It is also possible that a suture will have to be performed if the gingival tissues are torn.

These steps must be carried out in the shortest possible time, since the success of the tooth reimplantation procedure depends on it. The time required for reimplantation should be between 30 and 120 minutes.

After the procedure, the patient must wear a splint for 3 weeks until the reimplanted tooth is fixed. Once the stability of the tooth in its socket is confirmed, the splint will be removed. However, the patient must continue antibiotic treatment to reduce pain for a few weeks, avoid chewing in the area of the affected tooth and maintain a soft diet.

If the tooth avulsion occurred in a temporary tooth, it should not be reimplanted, as it can directly affect the growth of the permanent tooth.

Treatments for dental avulsion

1. 1. Treatment for a dental avulsion with open apex
      If the tooth has been outside the oral cavity for more than 2 hours and the apex is open, that is, the root apex has an incomplete apical end, a deep cleaning of the canal will be performed and it will be filled with calcium hydroxide.
   2. Treatment for a dental avulsion with closed apex
      If the tooth has been outside the oral cavity for more than 2 hours and the apex is closed, the specialist will perform an intraoral and extraoral endodontic treatment, without damaging the root surface.

What if the tooth did not break from the root?

If the trauma was minor, the tooth is usually only broken in half or on the sides rather than being completely knocked out. In these cases, it is best to go to the dentist immediately, so that he can evaluate the procedure to follow during the rehabilitation of the chipped tooth. 

Depending on the degree of tooth breakage, the dentist will choose the most appropriate method to preserve dental aesthetics. In the case of a small breakage, a resin filling that is the same colour as the patient's teeth can be applied.

However, for larger breaks, the following treatments are available:

• • Endodontics: When the break affects almost the entire tooth, a root canal treatment is necessary to treat the root canals or roots of the tooth and to completely remove the dental pulp. A dental reconstruction or a crown will then be placed.
  • Dental crowns: They are fixed prostheses that are used to completely cover a broken tooth or prevent the tooth from breaking completely. They are usually made of porcelain or ceramic, and in some cases, depending on the patient's request, the material may be metal alloys, gold or resin.
  • Veneers: They are used to repair certain defects in shape and colour, and in cases of avulsion of completely damaged teeth. Dental veneers are glued to the front of the teeth using resin cement, through layers of porcelain or composite.

If you are suffering from a dental avulsion, do not hesitate to go to Oralstudio the ideal option for dental avulsions. We are internationally qualified, since we work with the best materials and we have the best technology to create your best smile. Contact us now!