Dental emergency

Message +961 76 912 312 on WhatsApp on your way to us. Hold the tooth by the crown — the white chewing part — and never touch the root. For a permanent tooth, under 30 minutes gives the best chance of saving it; under 60 minutes is still very much worth the rush.

A permanent tooth has been knocked out

This is the one true race in dentistry. The cells on the root surface start dying within about fifteen minutes of drying out, and those cells are what allow the tooth to reattach.

  1. Find the tooth. Pick it up by the crown only. The root must not be touched, wiped or scrubbed — the film on it is the living tissue we need.
  2. If it’s dirty, rinse for ten seconds maximum in cold milk or saline. Not tap water, no soap, no disinfectant, no scrubbing.
  3. Put it straight back into the socket the right way round, then have your child bite gently on a clean handkerchief or gauze to hold it in place. This is by far the best outcome, and yes — you can do it. Being reimplanted in the first few minutes beats anything that happens at a clinic later.
  4. If you can’t reimplant it, store it in cold milk. Milk is the best thing in a normal kitchen or shop. Saline works. So does the child’s own saliva, held inside their cheek — but only if they are old enough not to swallow it. Never water: plain water destroys the root cells within minutes.
  5. Come straight to the clinic, messaging us on the way so we’re ready when you arrive.

A baby tooth has been knocked out

Do not put it back. Reimplanting a baby tooth risks damaging the permanent tooth developing in the bone directly above it, and that damage is permanent.

Instead: press clean gauze on the socket for ten minutes to stop the bleeding, use a cold compress on the lip or cheek for swelling, give the usual paracetamol or ibuprofen dose for your child’s weight, offer cold soft food, and call us the same day so we can check that nothing is left in the socket and that the permanent tooth is safe. Keep the tooth for the tooth fairy — it has no clinical use, but it has other value.

The other three that shouldn’t wait

A chipped or broken tooth

Find the fragment if you can and keep it in milk — we can often bond the child’s own piece straight back on, which looks better than anything we can build. Rinse the mouth gently with water and come in the same day: a chip that exposes the pink or red inner layer is a different, more urgent problem than one that doesn’t.

A tooth pushed in, out, or sideways

Don’t wiggle it and don’t try to reposition it yourself. Soft food, no biting on that side, and see us today. Teeth pushed up into the gum often come back down on their own over weeks, but they need to be watched.

Toothache with facial swelling

A swollen cheek, eye or jaw with a toothache is an infection, and it can spread fast in a child. That’s a same-day appointment. If there is fever, difficulty swallowing or opening the mouth, or swelling spreading towards the eye or neck, go to a hospital emergency department — don’t wait for us.

What not to do
  • Don’t store a knocked-out tooth in water, or dry in a tissue or paper towel.
  • Don’t scrub or disinfect the root.
  • Don’t put aspirin or any painkiller directly on the gum — it burns the tissue.
  • Don’t “wait until morning to see how it goes” with a permanent tooth. Morning is too late.

Preventing the next one

Roughly one child in three has some kind of dental injury before adulthood, and most happen in two places: playgrounds for the little ones, sports for the older ones. A mouthguard is the single most effective thing you can do for football, basketball, skating, cycling and any martial art. The shop-bought ones are better than nothing; a custom guard, made from a scan of your child’s teeth in one appointment, is far more comfortable and is actually worn.

For the under-threes: the classic injury is a coffee table at face height. It usually passes, but any blow to the mouth is worth a photo and a check-up — a tooth that turns grey two months later is a very common, and very manageable, late consequence.

This article is general information for parents, not a diagnosis. Every child is different — if something about your child’s teeth worries you, message the clinic and we’ll take a look.