Child's First Football Season? 2 Steps To Prepare For Dental Emergencies
If your little one is playing on a real school football team for the first time, then you are likely looking forward to them having a lot of fun and getting healthy exercise during practices and games. However, you likely also know that injuries can occur when a person of any age is playing football, and it is important to be prepared for them. Along with staying prepared for possible medical emergencies, you also need to be prepared for dental emergencies. Read on to learn about two ways to help ensure your child leaves every game and practice with just as many teeth as they started with, and what to do if one of their teeth is damaged during play.
1. Prevent Dental Emergencies with the Right Mouth Guard
Of course, your first goal should be providing your child with the right equipment to keep them safe on the field, and one important piece of safety equipment for every football player is a mouth guard. All mouth guards are not alike, though, and if you bought their first mouth guard with little knowledge of which type is best, then you want to make sure to replace it with one that will offer them more protection.
Which mouth guards are best? There are several types, including stock mouth guards, "boil and bite" mouth guards, and custom-made mouth guards. Dental professionals recommend custom-made mouth guards for full dental protection while on the field. Stock mouth guards are the least effective, and they can even get lodged in your child's airways if they were to be knocked unconscious. "Boil and bite" mouth guards are a step up in protection, but dentists state that they are too thin to protect teeth fully and do not protect posterior teeth at all.
Custom-made mouth guards are made to protect all teeth and are tailored to the sport your child plays. A custom-made mouth guard for football will be thick and made of several layers of ethylene vinyl acetate.
While a custom-made mouth guard may require a slightly larger investment than the lesser-quality mouth guards, they can be reused many times, and they can save you money in the end when your child's teeth are not damaged during play.
2. Tell Your Child What To Do After a Dental Injury
Even if you purchase the most protective mouth guard available for your child and urge them to wear it at all times during practice and games, a young child can suffer a lapse of judgment and decide to take their mouth guard off at some point during play. You need to know what to do, and instruct your child about what to do, if they were to lose a tooth while playing football.
Make sure to urge your child to inform their coach immediately if they suffer any tooth damage, and urge the coach to call you immediately after receiving this information, so you can pick your child up and take them to an emergency dentist immediately. Provide your child with a special tooth preservation product made to place teeth in after they are knocked out to keep them moist, and instruct your child to place their knocked-out tooth in it while they wait for you to pick them up.
Instruct them to rinse their mouth with warm water after suffering any other type of dental trauma, and after rinsing, simply leave the tooth alone until you both arrive at the emergency dentist's office. Keep the phone number of a 24-hour dentist saved in your cell phone, so you can reach out to the dentist quickly to alert them that you are on the way.
If this is your child's very first official football season at school, then you need to be prepared to handle all types of emergencies that could occur during play. Prevent dental emergencies by providing your child with the right mouth guard and instruct your child on what to do if they do suffer a dental injury while playing. For more information on the services an emergency dentist can provide, check out websites like http://www.emergencydentistva.com.
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