One of the most common accidents to occur to small children is that they fall and hit their teeth. Mostly at 1-2 years of age when they first learn to go and start climbing.
Statistics show that games, sports, fights and traffic are where most accidents occur among children and adolescents.
Among the youngest children (1-3 years), accidents occur mainly in the home. Tumbles and falling objects (eg. cases from furniture) are most common.
Every year about 25,000-30,000 incidents requiring dental work occur in Sweden, with boys more often affected than girls. Dental injuries are most common at the ages of 2, 8 and 9 years (Oldin et al., 2015).
About 10% of all 3-year-olds have experienced dental trauma to their front teeth.
When a child hits their teeth and their mouth begins to bleed, it often seems like it bleeds very much – the blood mixes with saliva and there appears to be more blood than is actually the case. The child gets upset and we parents frightened and distressed.
What do we do then?
Try to calm your baby and calm the bleeding – take a towel or something like it and hold it to the mouth until you have the opportunity to see what has been damaged.
When the bleeding has subsided and you get the chance to have a proper look, perhaps you notice that one of the child’s teeth appears to have been damaged. Contact your dentist for more information about what to do.
It is important to get the right information and possible treatment because the jaw underneath the milk teeth houses the child’s permanent teeth. These teeth can be damaged if there is a trauma to the milk teeth.
More information is also available at 1177.se
https://www.1177.se/Vasterbotten/Fakta-och-rad/Sjukdomar/Tandolycksfall-hos-barn/#section-0
Oldin A, Lundgren J, Nilsson M, Norén JG, Robertson A.
Traumatic dental injuries among children aged 0-17 years in the BITA study – a longitudinal Swedish multicenter study. Dent Traumatol. 2015 Feb; 31 (1): 9-17.
Pernilla Lif Holgersson 2017-09-03
