What should you do when your child comes to you crying with a bloody mouth and a tooth in their hand? A normal reaction to this scenario is panic. However, if you know what steps to take, you could prevent permanent damage to your child’s teeth.

The American Dental Association estimates that by the time kids graduate from high school, one in three boys and one in four girls will have suffered some sort of traumatic injury to their teeth. Also, baby teeth are a lot easier to knock out than permanent teeth because their crowns (the top part of the tooth that is visible in the mouth) are a lot longer than their roots (the bottom part of the tooth that’s hidden under the gums.)

Most caring parents wonder what they should do when their child knocks out a tooth. It is critical that parents are informed so they do not inadvertently damage the permanent tooth that is developing underneath the baby tooth in their child’s mouth.

A couple of days ago, I wrote about the steps you should take when a permanent tooth gets knocked out. With permanent teeth, you want to put them back in the socket as soon as possible. However, when you are dealing with a baby tooth you may not want to put it back in because you could end up damaging the permanent tooth that is still developing below your child’s gum-line.