What to Do When You Have a Loose Permanent Tooth

If you detect that one of your permanent teeth feels a bit loose, there’s no reason to panic. There are any number of reasons why you’re experiencing this problem, some more obvious than others. An accident or injury is one leading cause of loose teeth, another is gum disease or teeth grinding while you are asleep. But while the reasons may be varied and wide-ranging, one thing that they all have in common is a need to get the problem looked at immediately. If you feel a wiggle in any of your permanent teeth, that may be a preliminary warning sign of a significant dental issue. A loose tooth does not always mean significant dental care needed to solve the issue. The longer you let the problem go unchecked, however, the less accurate that statement becomes.

Leave it Alone

We all rely on our teeth everyday but they can still be mysterious elements of our body, mainly because you can’t really see all of them very well. Some of them are located way back in your mouth, so our guide to “see” our teeth is our tongue. That might lead you to investigate a loose tooth with your tongue and you want to avoid doing so. The more you play with it, the more you can aggravate the issue by uprooting it and making it looser. You may also infect it or cause it to bleed more than normal. This goes for keeping your fingers away from it as well.
If the tooth is already loose and compromised additional movement could force the tooth to break and you may get a piece of it stuck in the socket. That will result in more intense pain. Be sure not to bite into any hard foods or candies with it as they could both damage the tooth and make the problem worse.

Call the Dentist

Make an appointment asap. After the dentist is able to diagnose the issue, you could be eligible for a few different treatment options. It may be something as simple as getting a deep cleaning to eliminate bacteria and infection in the gum around the tooth. Once that is eliminated the gum can grip the tooth better and it won’t be loose anymore. Other options include tooth splinting which allows it to set properly or extraction and replacement with a dental implant. Whichever treatment is administered, you can’t fix the problem until you see a dentist.