Post-Op/Emergency Care

Dental Exam/X-Rays/Cleaning

After the cleaning is performed, please wait 30 minutes before eating and drinking. This will help absorb the fluoride (tooth vitamins) on your child’s teeth.

Dental Treatment With Local Anesthetics

Dental anesthetics can last for one and a half hours or more. The cheeks, gums, lips, as well as the tongue can be numb. Due to this tingling (numb) feeling, avoid eating for at least two hours as this may cause biting of the cheek, tongue, and lips. We will provide your child with gauze or cotton rolls to help prevent this but be aware a bite can cause swelling. To help with pain, we recommend giving children’s Tylenol or Motrin according to the instructions on the package. If you have any questions, please call our office.

After a crown and nerve treatment (pulpotomy) has been performed or a spacer with a band is cemented on a baby tooth, the gums around the tooth can be sore, red, and sometimes bleed depending on the extent of the cavity or depth of the band. There may also be bleeding during brushing and flossing. It is important to continue to brush and floss to reduce irritants around the crown and underneath the gums. An abscess is a possibility and can look like a pimple on the gums. If this occurs, please call our office.

If a crown or spacer comes off, please bring in the crown or spacer and call our office to re-cement. Dr. Goyal recommends avoiding eating sticky candy/gum/gummy bear vitamins from then on.

Extractions

After an extraction, there will be bleeding. This usually stops in 10 to 15 minutes and a blood clot forms. There may be minor oozing from the extraction site, which is normal. Children will sometimes continue to spit blood due to the uncomfortable taste of blood. We recommend biting on a cotton roll or gauze for 30 minutes to help reduce the bleeding and absorb the blood. The gums and the local area can be sore for a couple of days.

We recommend a soft diet for the next few days such as macaroni and cheese, Jell-O, ice cream, noodles, bananas, soup, or pudding. Avoid sticky and hard foods and drinking through a straw as this may dislodge the blood clot. Avoid brushing that specific area but continue to brush and floss the rest of the teeth to reduce biofilm (plaque). As for the pain, we recommend giving children’s Tylenol or Motrin according to the instructions on the package. If you have any questions, please call our office.

Dental Accidents or Trauma

If your child is awake and, upon inspection, a tooth is loose or fractured, please follow the general guidelines below:

1. If you can, find out from your child what happened and where it hurts.
2. If there is bleeding, apply pressure to the site with a clean towel. A cold compress can help.
3. Call our office at (925) 553-7173.

Broken Tooth: Find the broken piece - we may be able to reattach the fractured piece. There is a possibility that a nerve has been damaged or exposed or a deeper fracture. Call our office immediately.

Loose Tooth or Out-of-Place Tooth (Dislodged): Apply pressure to the bleeding site but be careful not to move the tooth. Call our office immediately.

Knocked out Baby Tooth: Find the tooth to see if the whole tooth is knocked out. Clean your child’s mouth with gauze or a towel and have them bite down on it to stop the bleeding. We need to examine the tooth and take X-rays to see the permanent tooth and if any fractures occurred.

Knocked-Out Permanent Tooth

1. Find the tooth and hold it by the crown or top part. DO NOT hold it by the tip or root. Do not scrape the root of the tooth - the tissue may help with the healing process.
2. Once found, clean the tooth with water. The tooth needs to be moist.

Option 1: Reinsert the tooth back into the socket, hold it with gauze or a clean towel, and call our office.

Option 2: Store the tooth in a special solution called “Save A Tooth” (www.save-a-tooth.com)

Option 3: Either place the tooth inside the cheek if the child is old enough or in milk. Time is important - the sooner you can see us, the better the chance of saving the tooth.

Toothache

If your child is telling you about a specific tooth pain, the cause can be food stuck between the teeth. Clean the area thoroughly with warm water and floss. The cause may also be a cavity, fractured tooth, or an infection. You may give your child children’s Tylenol or Motrin according to the package directions. Please call our office to determine the cause - an X-ray may be needed.

Oral Pain and Sores

This can occur after a dental visit from a deep cleaning to extraction. Your child could have bitten the cheek, tongue, or lips or the site may be painful while it is healing. Another possibility is a canker sore (white spot), which can be seen in the area where the injury occurred. These sores can occur spontaneously and may be quite painful. These injuries are usually self-limiting but it is important to have your child evaluated to rule out other possibilities such as dental abscesses or systemic diseases.

Bleeding After Losing Baby Tooth

Minor bleeding can occur after the loss of a baby tooth. The bleeding should stop within a couple of minutes. If it continues, have your child bite firmly on a clean piece of gauze or cotton roll for 15 minutes. The pressure usually stops the blood. This process can be repeated with new gauze or cotton roll every 15 minutes. Please contact our office if you feel that the bleeding has gone on for longer than normal.

Broken Appliances

If a broken appliance or space maintainer can be removed easily, please remove it. If it cannot be taken out, cover the sharp or protruding portion with cotton balls, gauze, or soft chewing gum (sugarless is best). Please schedule an appointment. Although we recommend you inform us immediately if an existing space maintainer becomes loose, this situation is not considered a dental emergency.