see Dental Trauma
| Injury | Definition | Management |
| Concussion | Injury to supporting tissues of the tooth, without displacement | Reassurance and soft diet |
| Subluxation | Partial displacement, loosening of a tooth without displacement | Splint for 1-2 weeks (if mobile) Soft diet (1 week) |
| Luxation | Displacement of tooth (laterally, labially, or palatally) | Reduce the tooth (use fingers to push back into place) Splint for 2 -3 weeks Manual reduction difficult if > 24 hr since injury |
| Intrusion | Displacement of tooth into its socket (often accompanied by # of alveolar bone) | No immediate treatment required (teeth with immature roots are likely to erupt) |
| Extrusion | Partial displacement of tooth out of its socket | Reduce tooth (with digital pressure) Splint for 1 -2 weeks, 3-4 (if alveolar #), 6-8 (if comminuted) |
| Enamel # only (Ellis Class I) |
No pink spots or bleeding in the cross section of the tooth | No initial treatment |
| Enamel and dentine # (Ellis Class II) |
Pink spots or bleeding in the cross section of the tooth | Avoid hot or cold drinks Rest Soft diet Analgesic |
| Enamel, dentine, pulp # (Ellis Class III) |
Pinpoint bleeding, soft pink/ red tissue seen Extreme pain. |
Don’t touch the pulp nor inject into it LA infiltration or block to relieve pain OPG to look for root fractures Assess for soft tissue lacerations Soft diet, no hot / cold fluids. Analgesics (panadeine forte) The longer the pulp is exposed the higher chance the pulp will die. |
| Crown # (Rare) |
# at base of tooth |
do OPG (to assess #)
| TYPES | MANAGEMENT |
| Apical 1/3 | No initial treatment Good prognosis |
| Middle 1/3 | Reduce crown (if displaced) Splint loose teeth (8 -12 weeks) Refer to dental surgeon for ?root canal treatment |
| Coronal 1/3 | Extract crown (if loose) |
| Oblique | Treat as coronal # (if # < 4mm) Extract (if # > 4mm) |
| Vertical | Extract |
Dr George Chu BDSc MBBS
Ed. Dr. Derek Louey MBBS FACEM