How Would I Know If My Child Has an Impacted Tooth?
Posted on 5/15/2024 by Singing River Dentistry - Florence
One of the items on our parent checklist is to keep the teeth of our children as healthy as possible. Despite our best efforts, sometimes children get hurt or sick. One of the questions many parents have concerns about is impacted teeth. What is an impacted tooth, and how would I know if my child has one?
About Impacted Teeth
While impacted teeth sound horrible, they are nothing more than a tooth trapped in the jawbone. When the tooth is trapped in the jawbone, it cannot push through the gums and erupt on the surface of the gums. Often, permanent teeth can be impacted because the teeth that have already erupted in the mouth may be crowded together, making it impossible for another tooth to erupt at all. Also, the teeth may fail to erupt because their mouths are too small to contain any more teeth at the moment. Finally, if you have a young adult who has impacted wisdom teeth, which is fairly common, it may be that because the third set of molars erupts so much later than the other teeth, they may not erupt at all and instead stay in the jawbone.
Warning Signs Your Child May Have an Impacted Tooth
If your child does have an impacted tooth, there are warning signs you can look for. Your child may complain about tooth pain. If you look at their mouth in the area where they are complaining about pain, you may also notice swelling or inflammation in that area. The gums may also be red.
You may notice that the surrounding teeth do not line up correctly. Also, your child may tell you that they are having a lot of headaches. Some children complain about their ears hurting as well. You may also notice their lymph nodes are swollen. All of these are signs you need to discuss with our dentist. If your child does have an impacted tooth, our dentist will be able to see it on an X-ray. Has it been a while since your child came in to see our dentist? Why not schedule an appointment for them today?
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One of the items on our parent checklist is to keep the teeth of our children as healthy as possible. Despite our best efforts, sometimes children get hurt or sick. One of the questions many parents have concerns about is impacted teeth. What is an impacted tooth, and how would I know if my child has one?