Toddler with a chipped tooth. What can a parent do ?

(March 11, 2010)

Many toddlers tend to have minor accidents when learning how to walk, or while making innumerable efforts to walk a certain distance while still developing a good sense of balance. Most often, toddlers who are learning how to walk will fall backwards and land on the bottom, an area that provides enough cushioning to brace the fall. Still, at times, some toddlers are not so lucky when they have a tendency to fall forward and come into contact with a more solid surface, injuring the face. Toddlers who have already grown a set of milk teeth are likely to chip a tooth when falling forward.

A toddler who has chipped a tooth is more likely to cry out of fear than anything else. The chipping of a tooth is an absolutely new experience, and is lost in the experience of the fear of falling. A chipped tooth may not be any more sensitive than when it was complete. However, because of the chipping, it may have a few jagged edges which will need filing, in due course of time, to help the toddler avoid being cut by the jagged edge itself. One of the best recommended methods of dealing with a toddler who has fallen and chipped a tooth is to stay calm and give your toddler an ice cube to suck on, to numb the pain, if any. Besides numbing the pain, ice lollipops are well known pacifiers for children who are going through a rough patch.

Chipped teeth do not really affect toddlers all that much, because of the fact that a toddler has only milk teeth in the mouth. As the toddler grows up, he or she will lose all the milk teeth and grow in a permanent set of teeth by the age of twelve. Milk teeth that break when a toddler bangs against something need to be removed from the mouth before your baby swallows them. Swallowing a milk tooth that has broken unexpectedly can cause a blockage in the throat and will lead to irritation of the area in which it has been lodged. Chips of broken toddler tooth also need to be cleared out of the mouth before they cause an irritable sensation in the throat. A visit to the dentist would be beneficial because the dentist will be able to assess the damage more clearly and then decide on whether filing of the tooth to remove any sharp edges is required or not

Submitted by P T on March 11, 2010 at 11:25