Watch Out for Black Ice in Winter Weather

Dental Trauma from Slipping and Falling on Ice

Imagine you’re walking along enjoying the crisp winter air when suddenly your feet shoot out from under you, leaving you shocked as you fall to the ground. Your path seemed to be clear, but as you look a little closer you see a nearly invisible glaze of black ice under your feet.

What is black ice?

Black ice is an infamously dangerous winter road condition in which ice is so thin and transparent that it can’t be easily seen. It’s most often used in reference to driving conditions, but black ice isn’t only a cause for concern for drivers. Black ice can also cause accidents for pedestrians while walking across a street or on the sidewalk. Slipping and falling on black ice can lead to head and facial injuries as well as dental trauma.

What injuries can happen from falling on black ice?

Injuries from falling on black ice have a chance of being quite severe since you often don’t anticipate slipping. It’s important that if you do fall you take a moment to collect yourself before jumping up right away. Sometimes it can take a moment to realize you’ve hurt yourself.

Some of the most common injuries from falling on black ice include muscle sprains, fractures, back pain, broken bones, and concussions. Many people often land on a hip, wrist, leg, or on their back after slipping. Although head injuries are less common than back pain or a broken ankle, they can be extremely damaging.

It’s crucial to seek out help if you’ve experienced any sort of head or facial impact from falling. Concussions and related head injuries are very serious, and if you’ve hit your head hard enough to knock out or crack a tooth, you may have done other damage.

If you’ve hit your head and you feel dizzy, confused, nauseous, and wobbly, or if you have a headache, sudden sensitivity to light or noise, change in pupil size, or you lost consciousness, you need to seek immediate medical assistance as you could have a brain injury.

Dental Trauma From Falling on Black Ice

Some examples of dental trauma from a fall on ice include:

Knocked-out teeth
Dislodged teeth
Fractured teeth
Broken or chipped teeth
Bitten or cut tongue, cheek, or lip

If you’re experiencing a dental injury without signs of head trauma, you can contact an emergency dentist for assistance.

If an emergency dentist isn’t available or you’re experiencing signs of a head or brain injury in addition to dental trauma, have someone drive you to the closest emergency center for help instead. While a dentist can treat dental and oral injuries, we won’t be able to help with a suspect brain injury or severe head trauma.

How an Emergency Dentist Can Treat Dental Trauma

Here’s how an experienced dentist can help you with a dental injury.

Knocked-Out Tooth

If you’ve knocked out a tooth, stay calm. Collect the tooth and take care to only touch the crown and not the root. If the tooth is dirty, rinse it in clean water and see if it will go back into the socket. If there is any resistance, stop, place the tooth in a glass of cold milk, and get to a dentist as soon as possible.

Your dentist will take x-rays of the tooth if you were able to replace it in its socket. If you weren’t able to, they will replace it and take x-rays afterwards to ensure proper position. From there they will splint the tooth and follow up with care afterward to save it.

If a tooth isn’t able to be saved, don’t worry. Modern dental restorations like dental implants and dental bridges can replace your missing tooth.

Dislodged Tooth

Sometimes a tooth doesn’t get completely knocked out but instead becomes dislodged and may feel wiggly or loose. If you notice your tooth has shifted in position or is noticeably loose, your dentist will need to see you right away.

They will take x-rays to assess the damage and determine how to treat the tooth. The tooth may be able to be saved by repositioning it and splinting, similar to how a knocked-out tooth would be treated.

Chipped or Fractured Tooth

A mild or moderate chipped tooth doesn’t require emergency care, but a severely chipped or fractured tooth does, especially if you’re bleeding or experiencing severe pain.

Your dentist will begin by examining the tooth and taking x-rays. If the tooth is still healthy, damage can be repaired through restorative dentistry procedures like a dental crown. In some cases, root canal therapy may be recommended if the tooth has signs of interior damage to the pulp.

If a tooth is fractured to the point it can’t be recovered, extraction may be the last resort, followed by the placement of a dental implant, bridge, or partial denture.

Bitten Tongue or Lip

The tongue, inside of the cheeks, and lips can all easily be bitten during a fall. Sometimes a bite or laceration can happen in addition to a knocked-out or chipped tooth. Dentists are able to treat these types of oral injuries in a few ways.

Most bites or cuts inside the mouth can simply be cleaned and allowed to heal on their own. If an injury is bleeding and painful, your dentist can numb the area and apply gauze to control the bleeding. Usually, this is enough, coupled with at-home aftercare. However, a more severe bite or cut may need sutures.

In a case of a very bad laceration or bleeding that won’t stop, your dentist will get the bleeding under control and refer you to an urgent care or emergency center.

Emergency Dental Care in East Norriton, PA

If you’re in or close to East Norriton, PA, and you’ve experienced dental trauma, the team at Bentz Dental Implant & Prosthodontic Center can help you. Call our office for immediate assistance. We even have an emergency phone line directed to an on-call staff member for after-hours emergencies.

Your Quick Guide and Printable for a Knocked-Out Tooth

Emergency Dental Care

What to Do When You Knock Out a Tooth

One of the most common traumatic dental injuries experienced by adults is a knocked-out tooth. Knocking out a tooth can be a very alarming and frightening situation—not to mention very painful! It’s also a very serious event that requires swift action in order to save the tooth and your smile.

Here’s everything you need to know about losing an adult tooth to an injury or accident, including an infographic and printable guide.

Click here for a printable version.

How Adult Teeth Get Knocked Out

Adult teeth can get knocked out whenever some sort of force or impact strikes the face or mouth. A knocked-out (or avulsed) tooth can happen when:

Playing contact sports.
Being involved in a car accident.
Falling and hitting the face.
Suffering an accidental strike to the face.

Weakened teeth, such as those already vulnerable from decay and damage, are more likely to be lost in an accident. In some rare cases of severe periodontitis resulting in loose teeth, a tooth may come out while eating something tough or chewy!

What Happens When a Tooth is Knocked Out

When a tooth is knocked out, there are many things happening at once.

There is the initial shock or realization that your tooth has come out. In the case of a car accident or severe impact, it might take you a second to understand what’s happened. Bleeding typically occurs right away and can be quite heavy as the mouth is a very vascular area of the body. Your body will kick into action and a blood clot should begin to form in the now-empty socket.

It’s important to know that when a tooth is knocked out, it isn’t just the tooth that has experienced damage. Within the tooth socket, damage has also occurred. The nerves to the tooth and supporting gum tissue have been harmed, along with the blood vessels, which result in bleeding. The damage to the nerves is why a dentist will need to perform a root canal on the tooth if it’s able to be saved. This is because a knocked-out tooth may reattach to the bone in the socket, but nerves can’t be reattached.

That being said, if you act swiftly and take proper action, there is a good chance of saving your knocked-out tooth. It’s possible for it to be reattached and, after root canal therapy and a crown, it will be as though your tooth never experienced an injury.

What to Do If You’ve Lost a Tooth

If your tooth has just been knocked-out, take a deep breath and begin following these steps.

Step 1: Find the Tooth

In a sports-related injury or car accident, it’s possible for the tooth to be ejected or accidentally spit from the mouth. If this is the case you need to immediately search for the lost tooth before moving forward. The clock is ticking and every second counts. Avoid picking it up by or touching the roots.

Step 2: Rinse the Tooth

If the tooth is dirty you’ll need to carefully rinse it to remove the debris. If you’re at home, use cold milk to rinse the tooth. Cold water can be used when milk isn’t available. After rinsing, move on to the next step. Do not attempt to dry the tooth in any way.

Step 3: Attempt to Replace the Tooth

In many cases, a lost tooth may slip right back into the socket without any resistance. This is the ideal situation for saving a tooth after being knocked out. Simply take the tooth after it’s been rinsed and gently see if it will go back into place, facing the right way. Do not force this and if there is resistance, stop.

If the tooth does slip back in place, you can then apply a small piece of rolled-up gauze under it to help keep it in place as you bite down.

Alternative: Place the Tooth Into a Clean Container

If the tooth doesn’t easily slip back into place, find a clean container, fill it with milk, and place the tooth in the cup. If you’re out of the house and these products aren’t available, simply take the clean tooth and place it back in your mouth between your cheek and gum.

Water can also be used as a last resort as it’s better than nothing. Remember that keeping the tooth moist is crucial.

Step 4: Apply Gauze to Control any Bleeding

Grab some sterile gauze, roll it up, and place it on the tooth socket. Gently bite down, only hard enough to provide some pressure to stop the bleeding. Do not attempt to stuff the socket with gauze or use a product that will stick to the gums, such as a paper towel or toilet paper.

If you don’t have gauze available, use the same method with a clean hand towel, handkerchief, or another piece of cloth instead.

Step 5: Call Your Dentist Immediately

Once everything is under control, call or have a family member call your dentist for help. Ideally, you’ll be able to see your regular dentist for assistance. If your dentist is unreachable, you should contact another local dentist that provides emergency care.

Please be cautious of attempting to drive if you’ve just experienced a traumatic dental injury. Blood loss, shock, and stress can make it unsafe to drive a vehicle.

Alternative: Seek Emergency Help If Needed

If you’re unable to get help from your dentist, experiencing additional injuries or symptoms (i.e. dizziness or fainting) or your bleeding is uncontrolled and heavy, you need to seek out emergency help. A local emergency center will be able to help get your pain and bleeding under control. Many modern emergency centers also have a dedicated emergency dentist on-call for these types of injuries.

What to Do if Someone Else Has Lost a Tooth

You’ll want to follow the same steps listed above if a family member or friend has lost a tooth. It’s important to keep them calm, comfortable, and immediately locate the tooth that’s been lost.

Always wash your hands thoroughly before touching the other person and take extreme care to only touch the crown of the tooth. If you’re unsure about attempting to replace the tooth in the socket or the person you’re helping is concerned, simply place the tooth in a sterile container with milk.

Attempt to contact their dentist, but if that isn’t an option, seek out emergency help from a local dedicated emergency dentist or emergency center.

What if a child has lost a tooth?

If the tooth that’s been lost is a child’s baby tooth, do not attempt to replace it. Simply clean the mouth and socket, control the bleeding, and get in touch with a dentist right away.

Emergency Dental Care in East Norriton, PA

Bentz Dental Implant & Prosthodontic Center provides emergency dental care services to anyone experiencing a traumatic dental injury, including a knocked-out tooth.

If you or someone you’re with has just lost a tooth, call our office right away for help. For after-hours emergencies, listen to our phone message and call the emergency number. This will get you in touch with a staff member who can assist. While losing a tooth in this way is never ideal, you can feel reassured that help is only a phone call away.

Why Is Botox Used for Jaw Pain and Headaches?

Restorative Dental Care

The Lesser-known Uses for Botox

While most people have heard of Botox, it’s usually discussed in the context of cosmetic treatments and Hollywood celebrities. This is because it’s incredibly popular for its ability to smooth out wrinkles, giving skin a younger appearance. But did you know that Botox is also incredibly good at relieving migraine headaches and jaw pain? It might sound strange, but it’s absolutely true! If you’re just learning about this use for Botox, you might not know much about why this treatment is used this way or how it works. To make learning this information as easy as possible, we’ve put together the basics of Botox and how it could relieve your symptoms.

Botox has been relieving headaches for over a decade.

Botox was actually first introduced as a treatment for migraines in 2000 because multiple patients receiving it for cosmetic purposes reported that they’d experienced an improvement in their headaches. The FDA approved Botox for migraine treatment in 2010 after multiple medical studies showed the efficacy of the treatment. And the studies really do speak for themselves! In one study, adult participants reported that the treatment gave them more pain-free days each month and cut down on the severity of their headaches on the days that they had them. Another study noted that after five rounds of Botox treatment, 70% of participants reported that the number of days they usually got headaches each month was cut in half! That’s a huge difference—more than enough to transform someone’s daily life.

But how does Botox manage this? Doctors or trained dentists inject Botox around nerve endings, or pain fibers, that are involved in sending pain signals to your brain during a headache. Once it reaches your nerve endings, Botox blocks the neurotransmitters that send these pain signals. While Botox doesn’t treat the underlying condition that causes migraines, the result is still transformative for many people because it reduces the severity and frequency of headaches and migraines.

It’s also often used to relieve jaw pain.

In some cases, Botox can also be a treatment option if you’re experiencing TMD or severe pain in your temporomandibular joint (TMJ) from clenching or grinding your teeth. Recent studies have shown that the treatment can yield significant results in preventing bruxism, including sleep bruxism, and relieving related TMD symptoms like jaw pain, tooth sensitivity, dental injuries, and more. Botox manages this in the same way that it smooths wrinkles—by relaxing and partially paralyzing certain muscles in your face and jaw, limiting their ability to contract. Much like the way it blocks pain from migraines, Botox does this by blocking nerve impulses.

When you receive this treatment, your dentist targets specific muscles like the masseter muscle, which is involved in chewing. By forcing these muscles to relax, Botox treatments reduce clenching and grinding, which in turn cuts down on the pressure that’s placed on your jaw and teeth. This helps relieve pain in your jaw and teeth, but the reduction in muscle tension can also relieve symptoms like tension headaches and muscle soreness in your face, neck, and shoulders.

Despite the significant difference this treatment can make in your TMJ pain and other TMD symptoms, there are other treatments that you can try before resorting to it. Treatment options like nightguards and orthodontics can improve or resolve symptoms as well. Everyone has different treatment needs and wants, but it may be best to look into these options first. If you have any questions about your treatment options or what might be best for you, you can always schedule an appointment with your dentist to discuss your options.

Botox requires regular treatments for full effectiveness.

While Botox can be incredibly effective for many people, you’ll need regular injections for the best results. You likely won’t experience its full benefits until you’ve received several rounds of treatment. In the same study where 70% of patients saw their headaches cut in half after five rounds of treatment, a little less than half of the patients had seen the same improvement after just two rounds. This just goes to show that sticking with the treatment for a little while to give it a chance is a good idea! Everyone’s treatment needs are different, however, so how often you’ll need to receive Botox will depend on your unique case and symptoms.

Your dentist is a good choice for Botox treatments.

When you think about getting Botox treatments, going to a dentist might not be your first thought. Despite this, a dentist who is trained to deliver injections can actually be a very good choice for this type of treatment. Dentists have extensive training in facial anatomy, so they understand the functions and relationships between the bones, joints, ligaments, muscles, and blood vessels in your face. When paired with the considerable training necessary to provide Botox treatments, this knowledge helps them understand exactly where they need to inject Botox and why that location is best, helping them give you the best results possible. When you’re choosing a dentist or doctor to provide treatments, don’t be afraid to ask questions about their training and experience. These kinds of questions are normal—even expected—so a good dentist or doctor won’t mind answering them.

Nowadays, Botox isn’t just a cosmetic treatment for the Hollywood elite—it’s a medical treatment that can transform your daily life by allowing you to experience more pain-free days. Whether you need it for migraines or jaw pain, this kind of transformation can give you the freedom you need to live your life to the fullest again! If you’d like to learn more about Botox, what it can do for you, or Dr. Bentz’s qualifications, feel free to schedule a consultation with us at any time.

Watch Out for Black Ice in Winter Weather

Dental Trauma from Slipping and Falling on Ice

What is black ice?

What injuries can happen from falling on black ice?

Dental Trauma From Falling on Black Ice