Toddler Tumbles and Thwacks Teeth

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Tonight my son, who will be three in October, took a hard fall onto his mouth, and it appears that he hit his 2 top baby teeth.

The teeth don’t seem loose, but there is a tiny amount of bleeding around the gum line. He doesn’t complain of any pain. I think I’m paranoid, but it also looks like they are in a different alignment than they were before.

He had tubes inserted in his ears a few months ago due to some conductive hearing loss, so, I’m concerned his speech will be affected if he loses his front teeth.

I will take him to the dentist tomorrow to ease my mind. Have any Doper parents (or, anyone, really) had experience with this?

p.s. Not really “mundane and pointless,” but I didn’t think this was really IMHO or GQ material. If it needs to be moved elsewhere, whisk it away to the appropriate home.

2

Well I’m not a parent, but at Thanksgiving dinner one year my nephew was swinging on the porch swing and due to his large cranium size went end over and busted out a front tooth and cut his lip . It took a few months but he was as good as new.

3

That’s how I lost my two front teeth in kindergarten. We had a slide near a sandbox - this was back in the days when kids were kids and kindergarten playground equipment was made out of real-life STEEL, dammit! Anyway, there was sand on the slide steps, so my feet slipped out from under me and I slammed forward. The corner of the step above me got me right in the teeth and knocked them both out.

But I’m fine now. Twitches

4

My three year old (at the time) son did the same thing by jumping off a friend’s sofa and smashing his mouth on the corner of her coffee table. When we looked in his mouth there was one centre tooth that had twisted right round half a turn so that it was now edge-on in his mouth, one chipped tooth to the side of the two centre ones, and the other centre one had bleeding round the gum line as you mentioned.

I scooped him up and took him to the dentist right then and there (thank goodness it was early afternoon). The dentist thought that the twisted tooth might have a chance, so he twisted it back into place and put a splint on it, (it looked like a blob of superglue across the back of his four front teeth.)

I was warned that the tooth might not recover, and we had to go back several times over the next few months, and then be rigorous about going for checkups every three months as opposed to six. I was also told to look out for warning signs of infection.

The chipped tooth was fine, even though it’s a big chip it has never got infected. The twisted tooth went grey and I was told that the nerve was damaged. But over the next three years it has got gradually whiter and though it is still greyer than the surrounding teeth it has obviously recovered somewhat.

I was told that he might lose those teeth somewhat earlier than normal but so far there are no signs of them loosening.

My elder son had a nasty accident just this winter. We had JUST come out of the dentists office when he took a step into the road, slipped on ice and SMASHED his face onto the road. He never had time to put his hand out or anything. I just grabbed him up, swivelled round and went back in the dentists door! Poor kid, his face was so banged up, and yes, he had bleeding around the gums of his two brand new adult front teeth. Oh shit. But after a bit of emergency non-dental patching up which they very kindly did for us, the dentist asked us to come back in the next couple of weeks, where it was established that there was no lasting damage. (Apparently because his teeth were still growing in, they could recover where an adult’s might not.)

It is horrible and sickening to look at, but usually it isn’t as bad as it looks. Good luck.

5

My son and daughter both last their top front two middle baby teeth. In fact, the daughter lost both the top and bottom 2. No speech problems resulted, but a lot of goofy looking photos. I believe a different aspect was added to spitting as well.

The boy’s teeth came out when the 3 kids were down in the basement “watching TV.” When asked, none of the 3 had any idea how it happened, but all 3 were certain of the fact that they “werent doing anything wrong.” As parents, we were somewhat frustrated. But as lawyers…

About a week later they came up with a theory on how it had happened, with him accidentally falling off the couch and banging his mouth on a table. The best part of the explanation was that the culprit table had been moved to the basement AFTER the teeth had been knocked out!

My daughter’s front 4 came out during a bike ride. After a long Sunday of chores, my wife went skating and I was going to take a pleasant bike ride with my 3 kids. Of course, the 2 youngest chose to interpret that as another opportunity to bicker. On a bike path a couple of miles from our house, they were riding ahead of me, fighting over who was in front, when the boy cut off the girl, causing her to land on her face. She got up with a mouthful of blood, to which I applied my t-shirt. When I removed it to take a look, I uttered the classic brilliant parent lines, “Did you have all of your teeth when we left the house?” Followed immediately by my son gleefully crowing, “Here’s one!” as he plucked a tooth off the path.

After the pleasant ride home, I asked my neighbor what he thought was the best approach. Whether medical care was necessary, etc. He wisely observed that the teeth had already been knocked out, so I might as well have a beer. (I called the dentist, and they agreed stopping in the next day would be fine. Didn’t offer an opinion on the beer.) Well, one beer led to another, and I put the kids to bed before Ms. D returned home.

I guess I must have forgotten to tell Ms. D of the minor events that had transpired in her absence, because she received quite a shock when her daughter came down for breakfast the next morning!

6

My son did something similar around 3 years old. He fell and hit his mouth. There was no blood or anything, but the tooth got darker over the next few days. He had a checkup a couple days later, so I asked the doc to take a look. She wasn’t overly concerned as long as it wasn’t painful. I then took him to the dentist who said the same thing - as long as is wasn’t painful or showing any signs of infection (swelling gums, redness) he should be OK. The yucky color eventually faded.

7

My baby cousin unfortunately inherited the streak of Congenital Clumsiness which runs in our family. Last year, she fell and busted out her two front teeth on the metal rung of a chair.

It doesn’t seem to bother her. She speaks clearly (well, at least as clearly as a 2.5 year old usually does) and the doctor doesn’t anticipate she’ll have any problems when she grows in her adult teeth.

Kids are incredibly resliliant. I wouldn’t worry too much, and even if there is a problem, you’ve detected it early on which makes it more easy to correct.

8

When my brother was four, he was jumping down the front steps, slipped, and fell face first, mouth open, onto the wrought iron railing, driving his two front teeth up into the gum. They had to remove both the baby teeth and the damaged adult teeth surgically, and when he was old enough, he got crowns or caps or something to replace them.

I’d take him to the dentist just to be sure.

9

I took him to the dentist this morning, just for peace of mind. After a simple examination, the dentist determined there was probably nothing wrong, but it is possible that the blood supply to the tooth could be severed. Obviously, we’ll know that if the tooth darkens.

Luckily, the teeth were not loose, and he didn’t even cut his lips. The dentist said my son will probably be sore for a few days, and will most likely bounce back quickly- and most importantly- he doesn’t seem to think there is any damage to the permanent teeth.

Overall, I’m relieved- especially since there was no charge for the visit. We have a great dentist.

Thanks for all the replies.

10

This happened to my 2 year old niece when I was watching her, except I didn’t see any difference at all in her teeth after the incident. She’s 100% a-okay now (but scared me half to death, then I felt so bad I wanted to cry with her. Let’s never do that again, 'kay?).

11

This must be a right of passage for toddlers. My son took a fall onto his face on the kitchen floor when he was 3, and broke one front tooth in half. The other front tooth went dead after a couple of months and he had to have both of them removed.

He’s now 6 and just today was amazed when he lost a baby tooth the normal way. You know, by wiggling it for days on end with his tongue and finger and chasing his sister around the room with his mouth open so she could be fully grossed out by the blood. :smiley: