Are Pediatric Dental Implants Safe?

If your child loses or chips a tooth, don’t panic. There are plenty of solutions for it.

Kids are little explorers – they always love testing their environment and limits through play, and sometimes they play rough. Getting hurt is inevitable, and small bruises and scratches serve as proof of the lessons learned. However, sometimes your child can get a more serious injury.

If your child loses or chips a tooth, don’t panic. There are plenty of solutions for it.

How to Save a Dislodged Tooth

Saving a dislodged tooth is not impossible. Your body is able to do it, as long as the tooth is kept alive. A popular myth is that the broken tooth should be put in milk while you’re on your way to the dentist. While it may be much better than nothing, saline solution is more fit for this. Use a sterile saline solution that is compatible with human body fluids.

Options for Tooth Loss in Kids

If you did not have the chance to save the broken tooth, plenty of options are available for your kid. However, if you are considering a dental implant, it may not be the first solution available to you.

Let’s explore the solutions in case your child breaks a tooth.

Dental Implants

Dental implants may be a permanent solution, almost identical to the lost tooth and solidly fixed onto the jaw bone to give it full functionality, but children should not have them done before their jaw is fully developed.

The minimum age to get a dental implant is generally 15 for girls and 17 for boys. It is around that age when the jaw is fully developed, and the implant doesn’t affect the future tooth alignment.

Bridge

A bridge is a partial denture that uses the healthy teeth next to the gap to stay in place. The dentist can ground a healthy tooth and fix a crow on it that holds the partial denture in the gap. But that is not the only way to get a bridge. It can also be done by bonding the denture to the healthy teeth with resin.

Artificial Tooth Attached to Braces

If you were planning on getting braces for your child anyway, they could be the perfect option for missing teeth. Fake ones can be attached to the braces and fit perfectly while the others are being straightened.

Partial Denture

A minimally invasive solution is a partial denture. The dental technician will create a fake tooth that will fit in the space left by the missing one.

Your St. Louis pediatric dentist will provide the best option for your child until they are old enough to get a dental implant. Give us a call today at (314) 862-7844!