Parents, docs can help save kids' broken teeth: report

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Parents, docs can help save kids' broken teeth: report

By Shereen Jegtvig NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Kids with serious tooth injuries are often taken to emergency rooms or primary care doctors first, so physicians and parents need to know how to treat broken teeth until a dentist can step in, according to a new report. The new American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines on managing dental trauma are intended for doctors who need to be prepared when kids show up with serious dental injuries, but they also offer helpful information for parents who need to act quickly when a tooth is broken. "The success of healing is time dependent in many trauma cases - so you want to have a dental home and not rely on the local Emergency Department," said lead author Martha Ann Keels. About 25 percent of all school-age children break or damage a tooth at some point, according to Keels, who is chief of pediatric dentistry at Duke University Children's Hospital & Health Center.

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