What is acute dental trauma?
• Acute dental trauma is a serious injury to one or more parts of your mouth. The word acute is used to define problems that start suddenly, worsen quickly, and last a short time. Your injury may include damage to any of your teeth, the socket the tooth sits in, or your jaw. You can also have injuries to the soft tissues of your mouth. These include your tongue, cheeks, gums, and lips. Soft tissue injuries include cuts, bruising, and swelling. • Dental trauma can affect teeth that are primary or permanent. Primary teeth are also called baby or milk teeth. They fall out over time and are replaced by permanent teeth, also called adult teeth. There are 20 primary teeth in children and 32 permanent teeth in adults. Injuries to permanent teeth are more serious than those to primary teeth. Injuries can damage the crown (area above the gum) or root (area below the gum) of the tooth. Severe (very bad) injuries can expose the soft pulp inside the tooth.
