Young guy lost his teeth tonight..

[Gravity Aided]

Best wishes for a speedy recovery to the fellow. Had a similar fall in the 1980's, also from bike, but just broke the lower jaw, the teeth stayed put.

 

[sarahale]

I wondered if he had broken or dislocated his jaw as it all looked a bit out of place. We picked up the teeth we could find, the ambulance operator said keep them in milk but we didn't have any! Yuck I hope I never have a similar accident!

 

[Globalti]

I didn't know you could stick teeth back in. Do they need something gluey to hold them in or do you get some kind of brace?

 

[Milkfloat]

Jnr Milkfloat II lost a couple of teeth last year. He was only 3 at the time and spent 10 days in hospital on a drip, mainly because he would not eat or drink. When we finally got to see a dentist they spotted immediately that he had only lost 2 separate halves of teeth and that the reason Jnr would not eat or drink is because he was in a massive amount of pain. He had the remains whipped out under a general but it still took two days to get him to lick a finger dipped in baked beans sauce. As much as you may feel sorry for him - think about me, rushing back from Portugal because he had been taken into resus and then spending the next 9 nights trying to sleep on the crappy chair next to his bed whilst he had obs taken every hour

P.S. Tooth fairy was particularly generous with each fragment counting a s a whole tooth.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Well done for assisting @sarahale, gws to the unfortunate rider.

 

[jefmcg]

I didn't know you could stick teeth back in. Do they need something gluey to hold them in or do you get some kind of brace?

This is why I am pleased I did a first aid course a number of years ago. I've probably forgotten a lot of stuff, but I remember that I've forgotten it - if you see what I mean. So, I don't remember how to preserve knocked out teeth, but I remember they can be saved - so I can google it while waiting for the ambulance to arrive.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/first-aid/first-aid-tooth-loss/basics/art-20056635

 

[sarahale]

I did a 3 day first aid training course about a month ago and not once did they talk about teeth. The operator on the phone told us not to touch the roots and to try and put them in milk

 

[jefmcg]

I did a 3 day first aid training course about a month ago and not once did they talk about teeth. The operator on the phone told us not to touch the roots and to try and put them in milk

Who did you do a course with? Just curious, really. It's a pity they don't cover that stuff, teeth is one thing where knowing to do can make such a huge difference. Most situations, assuming the patient is conscious and not haemorrhaging, all you need to do is keep them calm and wait for an ambulance. With teeth you might be able to save them. Of course you were right to follow the operators instructions, I'd have done the same I imagine you'd only put your own tooth back in it's socket - that's the best way to keep the roots alive - and if you are dizzy in anyway, that's probably not a good idea. You don't want to pass out and swallow it.

Glad you were on hand to manage the situation. I had a nasty fall in January, and the care I received from someone in a nearby house made such a difference to my experience, even though they rendered no first aid as none was required. I'm sure the young man is very grateful for your help.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

Poor lad GWS and kudos @sarahale for being a good samaritan.

The good fairy owes you one.

 

[sarahale]

Who did you do a course with? Just curious, really. It's a pity they don't cover that stuff, teeth is one thing where knowing to do can make such a huge difference. Most situations, assuming the patient is conscious and not haemorrhaging, all you need to do is keep them calm and wait for an ambulance. With teeth you might be able to save them. Of course you were right to follow the operators instructions, I'd have done the same I imagine you'd only put your own tooth back in it's socket - that's the best way to keep the roots alive - and if you are dizzy in anyway, that's probably not a good idea. You don't want to pass out and swallow it.

Glad you were on hand to manage the situation. I had a nasty fall in January, and the care I received from someone in a nearby house made such a difference to my experience, even though they rendered no first aid as none was required. I'm sure the young man is very grateful for your help.

Armadillo training. The main focus was on CPR but whilst that is important I think its far more likely in everyday life I'm going to have to deal with things like broken bones, cuts and perhaps people falling unconscious. As I have never rung for an ambulance before I didn't think to look around to try and see a street name before ringing, nor did I realise they would ask for the persons age. Just seems they could of maybe run through a 999 call on the course to help with this in a more serious situation. From my training I realised very quickly that the guy had obviously had a head trauma and so insisted he sat down - I have no idea why, but he really wanted to stand up, not a good idea though! And then I could tell he was going into mild shock so just kept him calm and tried to just keep the chatter light to try and distract him. So I suppose in a lot of ways the training I recieved actually was beneficial, just wished somewhere along the line they had said about teeth!

 

[raleighnut]

Armadillo training. The main focus was on CPR but whilst that is important I think its far more likely in everyday life I'm going to have to deal with things like broken bones, cuts and perhaps people falling unconscious. As I have never rung for an ambulance before I didn't think to look around to try and see a street name before ringing, nor did I realise they would ask for the persons age. Just seems they could of maybe run through a 999 call on the course to help with this in a more serious situation. From my training I realised very quickly that the guy had obviously had a head trauma and so insisted he sat down - I have no idea why, but he really wanted to stand up, not a good idea though! And then I could tell he was going into mild shock so just kept him calm and tried to just keep the chatter light to try and distract him. So I suppose in a lot of ways the training I recieved actually was beneficial, just wished somewhere along the line they had said about teeth!

Nowadays ringing for an ambulance you are likely to be asked " are you sure you need an ambulance, can you not get a taxi" by one of the call centre staff. I realise that ambulances have been called out unnecessarily by some but the call centre staff should really be better trained. (and more money should be available for essential services)

 

[sarahale]

That's not very good, I wouldn't be pleased if they had said that to me. I made it quite clear he had taken quite a knock to his jaw, was dazed and bleeding a fair bit so they actually seemed keen to get the ambulance there asap and at 10pm on a Sunday perhaps was a quiet time. I know for broken bones you can be waiting something like 4 hours for an ambulance if they are busy as its not life threatening.

 

[nickyboy]

I wondered if he had broken or dislocated his jaw as it all looked a bit out of place. We picked up the teeth we could find, the ambulance operator said keep them in milk but we didn't have any! Yuck I hope I never have a similar accident!

Why milk I wonder? I'd have thought it would be much better to keep them in distilled water for example

 

[midlife]

Distilled water is not iso-osmotic and the water enters the cells of the tooth and they explode and die.

Back in the day before the internet we paid a shed load of money to buy the most up to date books on dental trauma by a very well known pair of specialists, the authors of the books then put them free on the internet. A lifetimes work for free, they lost an awful lot of money ... Altruism at its best.

I have no shame, if someone comes my way with dental trauma I look on their website to see what to do...

Shaun
http://www.dentaltraumaguide.org/permanent_avulsion_treatment.aspx

 

[Globalti]

Read Wikipedia on it. The article seems to be a thinly-disguised commercial for something called Hank's Balanced Salt Solution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_avulsion but it is quite informative.