Ready for another clinical tip that can help your dental practice and patients? Dr. Doug Smail returns with advice that can be a big benefit for younger patients who come into your practice after an accident.
Learn more about CDOCS and how it can boost your clinical game.
Video transcript
"Hi, Dr. Doug Smail from CDOCS, and today's tip of the day video is on setting the traumatically luxated tooth back into position. So I want to show you this case, because it's this time of the year you're going to see these kids. So in this case, there was an 8-year-old boy who fell and luxated the #8. And pretty typically, when a front-end incident happens, that tooth is moved inferiorly and palliatively.
"So now his teeth can't come together, so he can't eat. So the next day I saw him, and boy, he was miserable but ready to get treatment done. So what do we really do at this point? There was no traumatic fracture of the tooth or the root, so we were good there. And so as you can tell, this tooth just moved down. Of course, like I said, he can't get his teeth together. You can see a little gingival laceration there as well.
"What do we do with this? Gave him some local anesthesia, and basically, all that point I did right then was give him a cotton roll instead to bite down. Had a little talk with his mom, had a little talk with him. Meanwhile, he's biting down. What's he doing? He's pushing that tooth up and back. And now I'll check it, make sure it looks good. Now, get his teeth together, and then you put that cotton roll back in. You do your bonded wire composite splint, and you're ready to roll. And while he sits there for a minute afterward, I'll go ahead and I'll, you know, talk to them about the tooth turning color, any pain, any drainage, and this tooth may end up needing endo treatment, etc.
"So those are all the things you do afterward. But it's really a very easy thing. Rather than me pushing or luxating that tooth myself with my fingers, just put the cotton roll in, and we're all set. And I hope you enjoyed this video. We'll see you at a CDOCS course. Thank you."
