Dental Trauma

In Montana, and the surrounding states, we live active lives. We play sports, brand cattle, herd sheep, and even snowboard – well maybe not in July! All of these activities and many more, can place us in harms way for a traumatic dental accident. Like most accidents, when seeking care, timing is everything!

Dental Traumas

The type of dental trauma can vary widely from a simple chipped tooth to the extreme of a completely dislocated tooth with a fractured jaw. For the best possible outcome, getting treatment as soon as possible from your dentist is imperative.

Recent Dental Traumas

This topic is close to home right now at Hogan Family Dental. Just in the past six weeks, Dr. Eric Hogan has treated three young adults for sport related dental traumas. Each was an isolated incident. Each patient was seen relatively soon after the traumatic injury occurred. Each injury was treated to provide the best long-term outcome for the individual patient.

What To Do

We wanted to take the opportunity to provide you with the steps to optimize your success, in case this happens to you, a fellow teammate, or a loved one.

Find the tooth immediately, do not leave it at the site of the trauma.
Handle the tooth carefully – trying to touch only the crown portion of the tooth – that’s the part you naturally see in a person’s smile. Avoid touching the root because there are many fibers attached that we want to protect.
Keep the tooth wet. Placing the tooth inside the cheek, in milk, or in a cup with the patient’s saliva are great options. You can use contact solution or a “Save-a-Tooth” kit, if these are available. Try to avoid cleaning, scrubbing or drying the tooth in any way whatsoever.
If you are worried about a concussion or need to seek emergency medical treatment, proceed directly to the emergency room of your local hospital.
Please call your dentist. If there is no immediate threat of any other medical condition, bypass the emergency room and go straight to your dentist. Please call us and let us know you are en route and we will treat you as soon as possible.

Comprehensive Care

Dr. Eric Hogan has successfully treated all three sporting related traumas this year. In addition to sporting traumas, he has helped patient’s receive the best possible outcome following car accidents, branding accidents and even horse-shoeing accidents. You will receive comprehensive and thorough care from Dr. Eric Hogan.

Preventative Measures

No one can predict when a dental trauma will occur. Please keep our phone number handy. Even if you call our office and it is after hours, you will find instructions concerning how we can be reached. You may even want to keep a Ziploc bag and a Dixie cup in your sporting equipment for a potential emergency situation. This way, you will be prepared for the unexpected.