Badly bruised mouth/loose tooth? Dentist needed?

[judetheobscure]

My ds (age 2) tripped and fell yesterday, banging his mouth on the corner of a table. He's got possibly a loose tooth - it certainly looks like it's been pushed back a little. His upper gum and underlip are badly bruised. It bled a lot at the time and obviously hurt a lot, but today he seems to have been eating and drinking OK although I've deliberately not given him things like toast. I'm going to have another look tomorrow to see if the tooth is wobbly. Do you think I should take him to the dentist? Is there anything they could do?

I hope someone can advise you on this. It is possible to 'kill' a tooth by a bad knock like this, and then apparently it does need to be extracted. (This happened to one of ds2's friends). But I don't know at what point the dentist can tell that the tooth has been irreversibly damaged. Hope someone else can help.

the dentist probably wouldnt do anything unless the tooth was causeing him pain,the teeth can tighten back up and it may turn a shade of gray if he has damaged the nerve when he bumped it,this is very easy to do but doesnt really cause any problems.ds was kicked in the face on a bouncy castle and experienced damage to his 2 front teeth and the gums to the extent that we had to take him to casualty and he was seen by a max fax surgeon,aparently the dentist leaves the first tooth in even if it is dead as it forms a good path for the second tooth to follow.BABBLE BABBLE feel like i have rabbled for an age

DS2 did this to one of the top middle front ones falling out of DS1s toy shopping trolley. He was around 1 I think. His tooth was absolutely fine although it is now pushed a little further back and crooked (makes him look even cheekier!). His gum was swollen and I think he may have damaged the little bit of skin on the inside of his top lip but this all seemed to heal up perfeclty well.

Um - I was going to say what Loobie said.

I think I'd go to the dentist anyway though, jude, just to make sure there's no likelihood of root problems.

For everybody's future ref re second teeth - DS1 knocked one out, running into a swing frame in the park when he was about 8 and in somebody else's care - I was out all day, poor things were stuck with him! - they were wonderful, took him to his own dentist who stabilised the knocked out one (never did establish if it came right out or only partly) by splinting it to the next tooth for a few days.

The dentist thought it would die and turn black, it had almost no sensitivity to cold for years, but he is 15 now, it seems to be fine, and now he's finished with braces the dentist did one of those invisible repairs to the chipped part the other day and you wouldn't know anything had ever happened to it.

Modern dentistry is fantastic!

Thanks for the replies. I let him brush his own teeth tonight and it didn't seem to hurt at all. I'll try and find out tomorrow if the tooth is wobbly.

Judetheobscure how's your little boy today?
I agree with what's been said so far. Baby teeth are designed to take a bit of a battering - if thumped they do tend to shift a bit as opposed to suffering root fracture. It's most unlikely he has done any real damage. I have seen baby teeth pushed right back or right up into the gum and make a full recovery.
His tooth may or may not turn dark, and if it does it stands a good chance of regaining its normal colour again after a few months.

My son now 4 did a similar thing at age 2. The tooth was sore when biting hard for a few months but is now fine.

Hi Jude, DD1 had a similar experience recently though a little worse - smashed one tooth completey and knocked another, pushing it back in very slightly. We took her to the paediatric dentists at Kings - a fantastic service close to where we live - and were shocked to be told both teeth needed to come out and fast as they said there was a serious risk of infection, also damage to the adult tooth behind. It sounds like the damage your DS has done may not be as bad but I do think it's worth getting checked out just in case, ideally at a dental hospital to make sure you get expert treatment

Hi Jude, DD1 had a similar experience recently though a little worse - smashed one tooth completey and knocked another, pushing it back in very slightly. We took her to the paediatric dentists at Kings - a fantastic service close to where we live - and were shocked to be told both teeth needed to come out and fast as they said there was a serious risk of infection, also damage to the adult tooth behind. It sounds like the damage your DS has done may not be as bad but I do think it's worth getting checked out just in case, ideally at a dental hospital to make sure you get expert treatment

Hi Jude, DD1 had a similar experience recently though a little worse - smashed one tooth completey and knocked another, pushing it back in very slightly. We took her to the paediatric dentists at Kings - a fantastic service close to where we live - and were shocked to be told both teeth needed to come out and fast as they said there was a serious risk of infection, also damage to the adult tooth behind. It sounds like the damage your DS has done may not be as bad but I do think it's worth getting checked out just in case, ideally at a dental hospital to make sure you get expert treatment

Hi Jude, DD1 had a similar experience recently though a little worse - smashed one tooth completey and knocked another, pushing it back in very slightly. We took her to the paediatric dentists at Kings - a fantastic service close to where we live - and were shocked to be told both teeth needed to come out and fast as they said there was a serious risk of infection, also damage to the adult tooth behind. It sounds like the damage your DS has done may not be as bad but I do think it's worth getting checked out just in case, ideally at a dental hospital to make sure you get expert treatment

Hi Jude, DD1 had a similar experience recently though a little worse - smashed one tooth completey and knocked another, pushing it back in very slightly. We took her to the paediatric dentists at Kings - a fantastic service close to where we live - and were shocked to be told both teeth needed to come out and fast as they said there was a serious risk of infection, also damage to the adult tooth behind. It sounds like the damage your DS has done may not be as bad but I do think it's worth getting checked out just in case, ideally at a dental hospital to make sure you get expert treatment

Hi Jude, DD1 had a similar experience recently though a little worse - smashed one tooth completey and knocked another, pushing it back in very slightly. We took her to the paediatric dentists at Kings - a fantastic service close to where we live - and were shocked to be told both teeth needed to come out and fast as they said there was a serious risk of infection, also damage to the adult tooth behind. It sounds like the damage your DS has done may not be as bad but I do think it's worth getting checked out just in case, ideally at a dental hospital to make sure you get expert treatment

Hi Jude, DD1 had a similar experience recently though a little worse - smashed one tooth completey and knocked another, pushing it back in very slightly. We took her to the paediatric dentists at Kings - a fantastic service close to where we live - and were shocked to be told both teeth needed to come out and fast as they said there was a serious risk of infection, also damage to the adult tooth behind. It sounds like the damage your DS has done may not be as bad but I do think it's worth getting checked out just in case, ideally at a dental hospital to make sure you get expert treatment

Sorry everyone, computer went completely mad there - or was it me???

Have been off-line a while. His tooth seems fine now - slightly off-line but no sign of blackness yet. Rang dentist on the Monday and he said just to bring him in if it got worse.