DENTAL ACCIDENTS
How can we help?
If you’ve had a dental accident, you don’t need to be a regular customer of Team Dental to seek emergency dental treatment with us. If your regular dental care provider is unavailable, come see us right away so we can make sure your teeth receive the best care possible as soon as possible.
If ongoing treatment is required for the dental accident, we would love to provide the treatment for you here at Team Dental. If you aren’t a regular at Team Dental yet, we can refer you back to your regular dental care provider after the initial treatment with us if you would prefer.
Another reason to keep on smiling is for dental accidents and emergencies involving your teeth and jaws ACC will cover the majority of the costs.
Although we make ourselves available on all days of the week in our Christchurch and Tauranga emergency branches, if a dental accident occurs outside of our practice hours, we recommend you go to your local hospital emergency room to have the injury looked after as soon as possible.
Chipped teeth
Knocked out teeth
If you have had your tooth completely knocked out, it’s important the tooth is put back into its socket as soon as possible. You can either do this yourself or have someone help you.
When replacing the tooth in the socket, it's important you handle it by the crown and give it a gentle wash with water to ensure there is no dirt or debris on the tooth.
Then place the tooth back into its socket, and hold it in place by gently biting down on a piece of cloth. The next step is to make sure you see a dentist as soon as possible.
If you can’t replace the tooth with its socket, it's important you protect the roots of your tooth. You can do this in one of two ways:
- If possible store the tooth in a cup of milk to keep the cells on the outside of the tooth healthy.
- Otherwise, keep the tooth tucked in between your cheek and gum, or under your tongue.
It is best if you don't scrub the tooth or wrap it in dry tissue as this can damage the roots.