Oral Injuries and Their Treatment in Children

Besides tooth caries and misaligned teeth, very few children make it through to childhood without mouth injuries. The appearance of teeth in children brings with it a whole set of problems. While some are predictable, some others aren't. 

Mouth injuries, even the most gory ones need immediate and good treatment to avoid any permanent kind of damage. While home treatment often suffices, medical intervention is required in certain extreme cases. Below is all what you need to know to differentiate between the two.

How they happen?

Besides scraped knees and head bumps, cuts and bleeding on lips and inside of the mouth is very common in children. Mouth tissues are soft, and often a fall or hit pushes them against hard bones of the jaw or even the teeth. In addition, slip ups, tumbles, crawling are all activities where a child's mouth is exposed, leading to cuts and bruising.

How to treat them?

Oral injuries in children look much worse than they actually are. Because the mouth and areas in the face and head are suffuse with blood vessels, even a tiny cut can cause excessive bleeding, with the exact location becoming difficult to pinpoint. Often mouth injuries are minor and the crying bouts of the child are more out of fear than actual injury.

The below steps will help you handle any kind of mouth injury in a calm manner, reduce bleeding, minimize the pain and prevent infection.

• Stop the Bleeding - If the bleeding is from the outer lip or tongue, apply gentle pressure on the area with a clean moist cloth for a while. If inner lip bleeds, press the area gently against the child's teeth/gums.
• Distract the child during cleaning- Sing, talk or soothe the child in whichever way you can. Any treatment needs a child to sit still.
• Keep the area cool - Numbing the pain and reducing the swelling are first priority. Apply an ice pack or frozen veggies on the area. Sucking a Popsicle is also a great idea.
• Painkiller - These should be given only when the child is unable to bear the pain for long, usually under advice from the pediatric dentist
• Change diet temporarily - Although often superficial, lip cuts or injuries can be very painful. It is better to change the diet for children to liquid or semi-solid till the wound heals. Softer diets help healing faster and don't tend to irritate. Chilled treats such as Popsicle or ice cream, and a mouth rinse after food will take care of dental hygiene too for a while.

When is a pediatric dentist intervention necessary?

• When bleeding is very heavy, continuous and uncontrolled, and doesn't stop despite applying pressure and ice.
• When the cut is too deep or too wide
• When a rusted or dirt filled object has caused the wound
• When there is dirt or mud in the wound
• When a puncture wound caused due to pen/pencil gets into the roof of the mouth, or hurts deeper tissues of the jaw
• When the wound is caused by bite of an animal
• If there is suspicion of bone injury, swelling of the jaw, locked jaw, broken or impacted tooth
• Any inflammatory changes such as redness, swelling, pain, fever that lasts for more than a day

It is very common for children to have mouth injuries, almost like a rite of passage in childhood. The right kind of treatment immediately, with moral support and without anxiety will help them recover faster.

For more advice on oral injuries or to get treatment for the same, reach out to Dr.Premila of Small Bites Dental Clinic at Indiranagar by contacting her at 080 4125 6715.

Braces in Children & Their Different Types

It is common to see children nowadays with braces. Some kids can't wait to get it at the earliest, while parents themselves often feel that their children may require them for reasons as varied as misaligned teeth, or for an aesthetic look.

Regardless of the reasons for wanting them, there is a clear purpose to getting your child's teeth fitted with braces, and why it should be done at a particular age. 

Below are a few details on them and their purpose;

WHY BRACES

MISALIGNED TEETH

Children may need braces for any one of the following reasons;

* Overlapping, overcrowded or crocked teeth, also called as 'bad bite' or malocclusion. Malocculsion occurs whenever the upper and lower jaws have a major difference in size, where the upper is bigger than lower (called an overbite) or lower bigger than upper (called an underbite)

* Tooth decay, accidents and thumb sucking habits

* Inherited misalignment

Not all parents realize when braces have to be put, and it is often the pediatric dentist who can advise during routine checkups if braces are required. Depending on severity of the problem and the child's age, he or she will be further advised to meet with an orthodontist to get braces fitted out as per the requirement.

TYPES OF BRACES

Braces work by correcting teeth alignment, putting pressure on developing teeth to move into a particular position. This is best done during the growth period of a child, since the jaw and muscles are still malleable. There are different kinds of braces, and the doctor decides what is apt for the child based on the lifestyle and age.

1. Wire and rubber bands - Braces like these have been used for teeth alignment since years. These traditional braces have bands or steel ties holding wires between teeth brackets

2. Damon braces - These braces do not have steel/rubber ties but brackets hold the braces in place

3. Clear braces- These braces are clear/transparent and can hold themselves in place like a mouthguard

These braces either can be inserted temporarily, wherein removable braces can be removed and cleaned as and when required. These provide gentle pressure to the teeth.

Other times, teeth are very misaligned, and therefore need to be guided more accurately. This is when fixed braces are inserted. They cannot be removed and inserted as and when one likes. These are the bracket and band braces which are stuck to the teeth, with a flexible wire joining the brackets and allowing the teeth to move.

Functional braces on the other hand, use the movement of the jaw to align the teeth, and are are fitted only in certain conditions.

Braces are made from all types of materials' metal, ceramic and even medical grade plastic.

To know whether your child really needs to be fitted with one, bring him to us at the earliest. Dr.Premila will be able to assess the teeth, and decide the plan of treatment accordingly.

To book an appointment, please visit http://www.smallbites.in/