What happens if you accidentally swallow a tooth? How dangerous is this?

How dangerous is this?

A tooth is not a completely foreign body. This is a part of the victim’s body, which is also small and does not have serious dangerous properties such as toxicity. No human tooth is large enough to cause significant problems if it enters the stomach and esophagus.

It is very difficult to swallow the entire jaw

If you swallowed a tooth, you know about it, but you don’t feel it anywhere above the stomach, then there is nothing to worry about - it has already reached the center of the digestive system and will eventually come out naturally. The danger arises when a tooth gets stuck in the esophagus. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a solid tooth or a splinter, there is a high probability that it will have sharp edges. They are too small to seriously damage the mucous membrane of the throat, but they can cause panic and suffocation in sensitive people. It is not easy to push a tooth further out of the esophagus if it is stuck - those who have experienced such trouble associate their sensations with a fish bone stuck in the throat, only smaller.

The most dangerous situation is a tooth getting into the windpipe. This rarely happens, but it is necessary to act quickly and clearly. No fatal cases have been recorded, but the victim may even lose consciousness due to lack of oxygen and a panic attack.

The use of anesthesia in children for dental treatment

Local anesthesia

As a rule, dental treatment in children takes place under local anesthesia - application (without an injection) and infiltration (with an injection). The first provides superficial anesthesia, but it cannot be called completely harmless - a child can swallow a solution containing a high concentration of lidocaine. The injection is more reliable because it completely blocks pain.

Anesthesia

Dental treatment for children is associated with certain problems: one child is restless and hyperactive, another is afraid of the doctor and refuses to open his mouth. But teeth need to be treated, so in some cases general anesthesia remains the only option. In Western countries, this method has been used for a long time to treat diseased teeth in children over 1 year old. There is an opinion that anesthesia can affect memory and interfere with the normal development of speech. This is theoretically possible, but in practice this is an exceptional case. The cause of complications is not anesthesia, but the stress that the child received. Chronic disease may also manifest itself in combination with general anesthesia. However, without it it is impossible to cure multiple bottle caries in one go. The child simply cannot withstand 2 hours of necessary manipulations and filling of all teeth.

Before using general anesthesia, a number of studies are required:

general blood analysis;
biochemical studies;
blood sugar level;
electrocardiography.

Before the operation, you should not eat for 6 hours; 4 hours before the introduction of anesthesia you will have to stop taking any liquid, including water. The child is gently put to sleep with a gaseous sedative based on sevoflurane. He will wake up immediately after increasing the dose of oxygen. All reflexes return to normal within 15 minutes.

Contraindications to general anesthesia

Even a minor cold is a contraindication for anesthesia. After any illness, at least 2 weeks must pass. No vaccinations should be carried out 2 weeks before anesthesia and 2 weeks after it.

What can be done and what should not be done?

It is difficult for the victim himself to assess how deeply the tooth has sunk. Independent attempts to remove it from the esophagus will lead to a gag reflex and, possibly, new damage to the oral cavity.

What not to do:

Trying to reach the tooth with your fingers and especially with foreign objects
Panic and try to “cough up” the interfering object
Do nothing and hush up the problem, expecting it to go away on its own

Examine the gums if possible. If a tooth has fallen out or crumbled, then you should know what condition it was in in the near future. A small analysis will help you understand how big the chip is now in your throat; careful palpation of the gums from below will help you determine whether the root remains inside.

If there is no sensation of pain in the larynx or esophagus, then the natural way of exiting the swallowed tooth is most likely and there is no reason for concern

With all this information, go to your dentist or immediately to a traumatologist if you have difficulty breathing. The specialist will tell you what to do now, and at the same time will diagnose other teeth, warning of possible danger.

What measures should be taken and what should not be taken?

Extra precaution never hurts. Let's figure out what you need to do if you are unlucky enough to swallow your own tooth, and what you should never do.

First precautions if you swallow a tooth

First, determine whether it was a piece of tooth or the entire tooth. In the first case, the hypothetical danger is directly proportional to the size of this piece. Also determine the shape of the chip. It often happens that the broken pieces have sharp edges or corners. If this is your case, then you will have to visit a traumatologist who will help you deal with the swallowed part of the tooth. If the remaining part of the tooth also has sharp edges, then visit a dentist who can process these edges.

A knocked out tooth can be accidentally swallowed

What if you swallowed a tooth whole? In this case, you should contact your dentist.

He will conduct an examination and give his recommendations for oral care. This should help you avoid similar troubles in the future. A visit to a traumatologist is not necessary and is only needed if your condition causes you concern. The tooth will come out on its own after some time.

If you swallow a filling or crown

If you have swallowed a filling, then a visit to your dentist is required, as it is very important to determine the composition of the filling. Fillings installed in different clinics have different compositions, so you will need to find out whether their components pose a danger if swallowed. If this is the case, then you will need to see a gastroenterologist as soon as possible.

If a crown or filling is swallowed

Fillings with sharp edges carry the same potential danger to the esophageal mucosa as teeth, but they are much smaller in volume. Fillings may also not fall off completely, but rather break off into small fragments that pose almost no danger.

Important! If a fresh filling is swallowed, immediately contact the dentist who placed it. It was either placed incorrectly or fell out due to its unreliability. An infection should not get into a hole recently filled with a filling - the chance of infection and inflammation is very high.

A swallowed crown will not cause any harm in itself, but you should visit the dentist as soon as possible to protect the remaining tooth without a crown.

The crowns are also small in size and if they get into the esophagus and further, they will not cause harm (except for possible micro-scratches). If a filling or crown falls out, you need to immediately fix this problem by installing a new one, even if the tooth does not hurt or bother you in any way. Open dental canals and healthy parts of the tooth will begin to deteriorate after a few weeks from eating food or hot liquids. Due to delay, there may be a need to completely re-treat the tooth.

What is allowed to drink

The drinking regime after tooth extraction should also be gentle. The reasons for this are similar to dietary restrictions. The liquid washes out the hole, making room for bacteria and inflammation, and also brings additional pain while drinking. But water is very important for recuperation, so within a couple of hours after leaving the dentist you can take a few sips of cool water.

In the first days after surgery, you are allowed to drink warm (not hot!) tea, coffee, non-sour compote, juice, and plain water. It is recommended to abstain from carbonated drinks and concentrated juices and fruit drinks for several days. You need to drink in small sips directly from the glass. Some do this through a straw to prevent fluid from getting into the wound. But this is wrong, because during retraction, additional jaw movements are made, which can open the wound and cause pain.

You should also not rinse your mouth while drinking, especially on the first day after tooth extraction. This can be done with special herbal antiseptic solutions, carefully and carefully. But recommendations regarding rinsing should be given by a doctor; in some cases they are strictly contraindicated.

Is it possible to do without visiting a doctor?

It is possible if no discomfort is felt. Tooth enamel and the “body” of the tooth do not pose any threat even if they are damaged by caries. The body will easily tolerate this and “pass” a foreign object through the gastrointestinal tract without damage.

The closest analogy is to imagine that you swallowed a cherry pit.

A swallowed crown or filling is still worth a visit to the doctor in any case. This way you can prevent further destruction and not endanger neighboring healthy teeth.

Basic mistakes of self-medication

Is vomiting the solution?

What would be the first solution that came to your mind? It is likely that you will want to get rid of the swallowed tooth. If the “wait until it comes out on its own” method still has a right to exist, then the “two fingers in the mouth” method is the worst thing you can come up with.

Vomiting is the last decision you should make in any situation.

It is permissible only in cases where delay in cleansing the intestines can cause irreparable consequences. This happens when ingesting chemicals and other substances that are not intended for this purpose, but not when swallowing solid objects.

It is better not to swallow amalgam fillings - they contain mercury

Why you shouldn't induce vomiting

Whether it is a tooth, a nail or a bone, you should not induce vomiting. On its way back, the tooth will be in active contact with the walls of the stomach, esophagus and pharynx. Physical damage to these organs can be quite dangerous. They can become hotbeds of infection, leading to much more unpleasant consequences than minor abdominal discomfort. So, do not induce vomiting under any circumstances.

A hearty lunch as a solution to the problem

Your other solution may be to try to “soften” the passage of the tooth by drinking plenty of water or food. Such a decision will make sense if you act wisely and without fanaticism. You should not eat foods that tend to linger in the body. In this case, your tooth will be delayed along with them. Better eat some fruit or drink water. Of course, all this should only be done if you do not have the opportunity to see a doctor. In this case, any food eaten will only interfere with your examination. Instead of a tooth, the doctor will see only your hearty lunch under the x-ray.

Fruits will help you get rid of a swallowed tooth faster

Binge eating

This mistake is made by people who are not familiar with the structure of the digestive system. The only option when this solution can be partially correct is that the tooth is stuck at the end of the esophagus and you feel it somewhere above the stomach.

You can eat a small piece of black bread (white is more sticky), fruit or vegetable (preferably with a dense consistency). If after this the sensations do not change in any way, try again in half an hour. You can drink water.

Important! Feelings can be distorted by worry and anxiety - there have been cases when people, frightened by far-fetched threats, feel pressure and scratches from within that are not there. You can check your condition with a moderate sip of water.

In addition, a swallowed crown or other metal element of dental corrective structures will not be visible on an x-ray due to the large amount of food in the stomach and waste in the intestines.

Professional treatment

Of course, a quick response and timely treatment will guarantee the patient’s full recovery. The slightest delay can lead to a person requiring a long period of rehabilitation. Depending on the complaints, the doctor determines the optimal examination method; most often, X-ray or ultrasound is used.

Quite often, laxatives demonstrate an excellent effect; they speed up the process of removing the part from the body. In this case, the person does not feel discomfort or pain and lives a normal life. If the arc accidentally gets into the respiratory organs, it is more advisable to prescribe an auscultation procedure. It consists of listening to the lungs and other internal organs and allows you to identify disturbances in their functioning with maximum accuracy.

Sometimes professionals put the patient into medicated sleep, this allows the bronchoscopy procedure to be performed with less inconvenience. This is especially true with a strongly expressed gag reflex. Due to the urge, a person may move, which is extremely undesirable and can interfere with the careful work of the doctor. Do not underestimate the seriousness of the problem, because even a small piece of metal can lead to serious problems. A quick response will save a person’s health and sometimes life.

Turnkey dental implantation how it happens

Inducing vomiting

Inducing vomiting is a very bad idea. If a tooth is stuck in the esophagus, this may not help, and getting it out of the stomach at the cost of dehydration and possible digestive upset is too costly in terms of the resources of the human body. It should be remembered that vomiting is an emergency defense mechanism, and not a normal state of the body. To cause it yourself means to consciously undermine your health.

Even if the tooth really got stuck on the way from the esophagus to the stomach, a sharp influx of semi-digested food from below will push it with enough force for the sharp edges to leave a scratch on the mucous membrane.

What to do with a child with such a complaint?

Call the children's clinic and ask the regular dentist's office hours (in extreme cases, a traumatologist, ENT specialist, or even a surgeon will do)
There is no need to call an ambulance (only if the child is choking - then there is a tooth in the windpipe)
Calm the child down, give him something to drink and take a light meal with him, giving him a piece in case it helps.
If clinics are not open, find the nearest private dental office - they will quickly and most likely solve the problem for free

There is no need to panic - tell your child directly that nothing terrible is happening and the problem can be easily solved.

Are there medications that will improve the situation?

There are no solutions aimed at solving this specific problem. Such medications are not sold because the problem is not significant and will soon resolve itself or with minimal help from doctors.

Under no circumstances should you use drugs that artificially speed up digestion - this will cause no less harm to the body than vomiting.

Dehydration, stopping the healthy digestive process, pain, loss of appetite - all these symptoms can appear if you take the drug without appropriate indications.

If the tooth is severely stuck and scratched, no medications will help - go to the emergency room, where foreign objects are pulled out of the esophagus every day. This can only be done by a professional physician who knows how the esophagus works and will not damage it. If you don’t want to wait in line at the clinic and search for the right office, you can find a private dental office - usually there is at least one of these in every area.

Why can’t you eat after tooth extraction (removal)?

Tooth extraction involves serious intervention in the dentofacial apparatus. Any additional injury in the first hours after surgery is strictly prohibited. This also applies to food, which, if it gets into the wound, can cause pain and inflammation.

In addition, you can’t eat because:

pressure on the injured gum causes bleeding and severe pain;
hot, cold food irritates tissues, which leads to swelling, inflammation, bleeding;
Along with food, microbes enter the oral cavity, which instantly provoke an inflammatory process in the open socket
Efforts to chew food bring additional discomfort, which, in turn, slows down healing;
a blood clot inside the wound serves as a kind of barrier against bacteria, and food can damage or move it;
due to the penetration of food debris into the wound, alveolitis may develop;
even soft foods can easily injure damaged gum tissue, which is very bad for healing and overall well-being.

After tooth extraction, the condition is very painful and stressful, and the anesthesia does not immediately stop working, so you usually don’t want or need to eat.

What to do if a child swallows a tooth?

Children are the ones who swallow teeth most often - they chew faster, are in a hurry and know little about handling sick and weak teeth. A parent may not know for a long time that a child’s molar is weak or crumbling; children often hide such information in order to delay a visit to the dentist.

Young children lose their baby teeth, which they often accidentally swallow.

It is better to explain to the child in advance that there will be many more teeth that fall out and you should handle them more carefully. A tooth scratching the throat will cause a baby much more anxiety than an adult - he may start crying, unable to get rid of the irritant.

Preventive measures

The baby's relatives must do everything to prevent a dangerous situation: the little one should not choke on the crown bone. How to do it? The child needs to be explained that the unsteady unit requires observation. Mom will often look at the tooth. It will definitely fall out, so you need to be prepared for it. The baby should not be given solid food for some time. Relatives should help the little one get through a difficult moment by caring for him.

It is important to follow recommendations for the prevention of caries in children. The mother should think about this during pregnancy. There should be no deficiency of fluoride and calcium in a woman’s body. After the birth of a toddler, you need to carefully follow hygiene standards, do not lick nipples and spoons. The organization of a balanced diet is of particular importance. Include kefir, milk, and baby yoghurts in your diet. To absorb calcium, vitamin D is needed. A child can get it from fish dishes and sunbathing.

It is necessary to limit the consumption of sweets, because harmful streptococci feed on sugars. During their life, they release acid that destroys enamel. Fresh vegetables and fruits are healthy. A reliable remedy against caries is baby paste and a toothbrush. As soon as the milk chewing organs appear, they need to be cleaned. Teach your child hygiene skills from an early age. Take your child to the dentist twice a year. The doctor will detect the disease in the early stages and prescribe therapy.

Incorrectly restored tooth

Poor performance of the filling , violation of technology and methodology during restoration (we will not dwell on this).
The type of restoration is inadequately selected, in a word, “too big a filling” (i.e. they put a filling in cases where it can no longer be placed, but there are all the indications for “more serious” ceramic restorations (inlays, crowns).

I would like to dwell on the second reason in more detail.

Competent dentists know that there is an index of tooth surface destruction (DSI), which must be taken into account before restoring teeth in order to do it correctly. For you, dear patient, I will describe it in a simplified way. If the tooth is not severely damaged (conditionally up to 40% of the surface), a filling is an excellent way to restore it. Destruction of 40 to 70% of the surface requires the manufacture of a ceramic inlay or strengthening of the tooth with various pin structures.

If there is a significant degree of destruction of the tooth surface (more than 70%), the tooth should be correctly restored with a crown. In a word, the type of tooth restoration depends on the degree of destruction.

What's wrong with a filling?

Each recovery method has its own indications. So, a filling is necessary and can be placed in cases of small and medium degrees of tooth decay. If the decay is significant, a large filling can split the tooth in half.

Let's find out why!

Any material (even metal) expands when heated (remember the temperature of the tea you drink!). Temperature changes are a fairly common occurrence that our teeth encounter (from hot tea to ice cream). The coefficient of thermal expansion of filling materials is still higher than that of tooth tissue. That is, when hot food is consumed, the filling expands more than the tooth tissue that surrounds it. The larger the volume of the filling, the greater the expansion (this is why a large volume of the filling is so undesirable).

Of course, this expansion is minimal, not noticeable to any eye and not perceptible. However, add to it a chewing load (which far exceeds temperature deformations), a large filling, thinned tooth tissue, and the likelihood of chipping increases many times over.

Unlike filling materials, ceramics (from which crowns and inlays are made) have a closer coefficient of thermal expansion to the tooth tissues, and therefore do not contribute to its chipping. In addition, it is stronger. That is why it is correct to restore severely damaged teeth not with fillings, but with ceramic restorations. There are other physical phenomena that affect the change in the size of the filling and, as a result, the splitting of the tooth.

All of the above, of course, is true only with an adequately completed restoration (even fillings, even crowns). An inaccurate hand of a master can lead to chipping even with ceramic restorations, and on the contrary, a skillful hand can place a large filling so that it will last a long time. However, there is a limit to everything and it is better not to go beyond the indications for restorations if you want to get guaranteed and reliable work.

Conclusion : you should not expand the indications for conventional fillings too much; they are not capable of qualitatively restoring a badly damaged tooth. But in case of minor tooth decay, fillings have proven themselves to be excellent!

Let me give you a photographic example.

The patient complained that it was painful for her to bite on one of her teeth, that something “crunched” in it.

Upon examination, we determined: tooth 4 on the upper jaw: it has a medium-sized filling (at first glance). And a movable, broken tooth wall, which is held together only by the gums. This wall is no longer attached to the tooth.

The broken fragment of the tooth is mobile, easily moved to the side, but has not yet been removed.

View of the tooth after removing the broken wall: the cheek wall was chipped under the gum. A large filling and a thin remaining tooth wall on the palatal side are visible. Some doctors may try to restore such a tooth using a crown (with preliminary extension); some doctors will offer a perhaps more predictable option: removal and subsequent implantation.

Why are teeth restored incorrectly?

It’s absurd, but often the dentist follows the patient’s lead. The patient, not fully understanding all the subtleties and features of the distribution of the load when chewing, refuses the inlay or crown and asks the doctor to “put a filling”, they say, I’ll work with it a little more, and only then the crown! As a result, at the most inopportune moment, a “piece” of the tooth breaks off. As a result, such “pity” of the doctor for the patient turns out to be a bigger problem for the patient than timely adequate tooth restoration.

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How to properly restore teeth?

When treating a tooth, the doctor must remove all carious tissues, old fillings, movable walls, if any, completely clean the tooth and only then assess the degree of destruction (which walls and cusps have survived, whether they are able to bear the load, how the load on this tooth will be distributed during different methods of restoration, whether chips of any wall are possible, whether its restoration will lead to a split of the root, etc.). After such an assessment, it is determined how to properly restore the tooth: is it possible to put a filling, or does it need to be “strengthened with a pin,” or would it be more correct to use a ceramic inlay or a crown.

Conclusion: a properly selected restoration will preserve the tooth for many years, protect it from further destruction, and the patient from having to redo the work in a few years.

Are there any medications or other remedies

You should also not take any medications or drugs designed to speed up the emptying of food from the stomach. Extra irritants will not bring any benefit. You should also not try to get rid of a tooth with carbonated drinks. They will only further damage the teeth still left in your mouth. Take care of them so as not to encounter the problem indicated above again.

And most importantly, don’t panic. There is nothing wrong with swallowing a small foreign object as long as it does not have sharp edges and is not dangerous in itself. Your health will not be endangered if timely measures are taken and qualified assistance from a specialist.

Ingested temporary fillings containing arsenic must be neutralized

Why is inflammation of the esophageal mucosa dangerous during such an injury?

Any foreign object is perceived by the body as a threat. Its natural reaction to damage to the mucous membrane is inflammation. An inflammatory shaft forms around the foreign object, and then suppuration develops. Prolonged presence of a foreign object in the esophagus area leads to an increase in body temperature, the development of fever and intoxication, and increased pain. Needles and pins are able to migrate to other organs of the digestive tract. Often, against the background of the inflammatory process and necrotic changes, esophageal-tracheal fistulas, phlegmon, pneumothorax and even emphysema are formed. If large vascular trunks are damaged, bloody vomiting and profuse bleeding may develop.

Folk remedies

The effectiveness of treatment depends on proper diagnosis and strict adherence to medical prescriptions. Dentists at the Dentika clinic are able to correctly diagnose the problem and correctly select therapy. It is worth remembering that any disease is easily eliminated at the initial stage.

If it is not possible to immediately visit a doctor for dental diseases, the use of traditional medicine methods is allowed.

Pus under a tooth or above the gum can be an independent disease or signal the development of periodontitis or gingivitis. These are serious pathologies that do not go away on their own.

The use of antiseptic rinses helps to temporarily relieve inflammation:

You can dissolve a teaspoon of soda, table salt or two furatsilin tablets in 200 ml of water.
3% hydrogen peroxide solution and warm water in a 50/50 ratio.
Chamomile decoction. Two tablespoons of the plant are poured with boiling water and allowed to brew.
Miramistin or chlorhexidine biglucanate solution.

The key manifestation of the disease is pain. Taking analgesics will help ease the wait for a medical consultation.

For applications, use an aloe leaf cut in half.