What do I do with a knocked-out tooth?

First, which kind of tooth is it

Look at what you are holding before you do anything else. A permanent tooth is usually noticeably bigger than the baby teeth beside it, and the real giveaway is the root: a permanent tooth has a long, solid root, often as long as the crown itself. A baby tooth's root is short and thin, sometimes barely there, because it was already dissolving to make way for the tooth underneath it.

Cannot tell in the moment? That is completely normal, and it is exactly what the phone call is for. Describe the tooth, and we will help you work out which situation you are actually in.

What to do with the tooth itself

If it is a permanent tooth: pick it up by the crown, the chewing part, never by the root. Rinse it gently in milk or water only if it is visibly dirty, and never scrub it or let it dry out. Put it in a cup of cold milk, or have an older child hold it safely against the inside of their cheek, and head in.

If it is a baby tooth: it does not go back in, and it does not need the same careful handling. Simply keep it in case we want to see it, and turn your attention to your child instead.

Either way, fold clean gauze or a washcloth over the empty socket and have your child bite down gently to slow any bleeding, and hold a cold compress against the outside of the cheek for swelling.

Why this is a call, not a search

This is one of the few dental situations where reading further can cost you something. For a permanent tooth, time is genuinely working against you from the moment it leaves the socket, so call while you are finding shoes and getting to the car, not after. Say the words knocked-out tooth and your child's age, and the front desk will tell you exactly what to do next.

A baby tooth is rarely as time-sensitive, but it still deserves a same-day call rather than a wait-and-see, since we will also want to check the socket and the neighboring teeth for anything else a fall might have loosened. Call (239) 482-2722. For the fuller step-by-step, our emergencies guide covers both situations in more depth.

The one thing that outranks the tooth

A tooth comes out by force, and force sometimes does other things on the way through. Before you focus on the tooth, look at your child. Call 911 or go to the emergency room first if there is any trouble breathing or swallowing, bleeding that will not slow under steady pressure, a blow to the head followed by drowsiness, confusion or vomiting, or a jaw that will not open and close the normal way.

Bring the tooth along if any of that applies. The hospital looks after your child first, and we look after the tooth after.

What usually happens next

For a permanent tooth, the visit is often centered on getting it back into place and stabilized while things settle. For a baby tooth, we spend time on the socket itself and on the teeth right next to it, since whatever force was strong enough to knock one tooth free can just as easily jar loose or crack the ones beside it. If a baby tooth left months or years ahead of its own schedule, a space maintainer sometimes holds that spot for the permanent tooth waiting underneath. More on how that fits into repair generally lives on our restorative dentistry page.

Either way, the visit runs on the same rules as any other: your child hears what is happening before it happens, and you can stay right there with them. More situations like this live in our quick answers section.