What To Do When Your Child Is Having a Dental Emergency

Children are full of energy, always running and jump, but you never know when it might lead to a dental emergency. Dental emergencies are periods of distress for children and their parents, 
The two peak risk periods for dental trauma are toddlerhood (18-40 months) when environmental exploration begins and the second being the preadolescent period, when sporting injuries are the most common cause for a dental emergency.
Here are some of the most common dental emergencies that children face, and what you can do to help.

1) Toothache
A toothache is the most common cause of discomfort in children of all ages and it rarely occurs w Common causes of toothache include tooth fractures, tooth decay, tooth trauma and wisdom tooth eruption.
To ease the pain, have your child rinse their mouth with warm water. Use dental floss to remove any food trapped between the teeth. If their mouth is swollen, apply a cold compress to the outside of their mouth and take them to a dentist immediately.
Do not apply any medication to the tooth or the sore area unless instructed to by a professional.

2) Chipped or broken teeth.
Chipped or broken teeth are cause due to an injury that affected the mouth, usually in sports or other sorts of physical activity.
Make sure you save any tooth pieces if there are any. Next, rinse your child's mouth using warm salt water. If there is bleeding, apply gauze to the area for ten minutes or so, until the bleeding stops.
Apply a cold compress to the outside of the mouth, cheek, lip or near the broken/chipped tooth to keep any swelling down and to relieve pain.

3) Knocked out permanent tooth.
In the event that your child's tooth is knocked out of their mouth, retrieve it. Hold it by the crown- part of the tooth that is visible in the mouth. Rinse off the tooth root if you think it's dirty.
If possible, try to put the tooth back in its socket, make sure it's facing the right way. If this doesn't work, put the tooth in a small container of milk, or a cup of water with a pinch of salt.
In all cases, this requires you to see a dentist as quickly as possible. Knocked out teeth with the highest chances of being saved are those seen by the dentist and returned to their socket within an hour of being knocked out.

It would be better to prevent dental emergency by:

1) Scheduling regular visits to the dentist

2) Encouraging your child to wear comfortable mouth guards during sports

3) Childproof your home to prevent falls etc. Most dental injuries occur for toddlers at home, when they're just learning to walk. While childproofing helps, it isn't 100% certain to work.

If your child experiences any sort of dental injury, your immediate action should be to take them to a dentist as soon as you can. Waiting for a while before taking any action could just lead to permanent damage.