Why Store an Avulsed Tooth in Milk While Coming to See Us

Share on facebook
Share on linkedin
Share on twitter
Share on email

When you have an injury to your mouth that causes your tooth to become forcibly detached, you have what’s known as an “avulsed tooth.”

Fortunately for most of us, we’ll never experience a tooth avulsion. However, for those of us who do have this experience, we need to know what to do when it happens.

Place Your Avulsed Tooth in Milk

The first thing you want to do is reach for some milk to place your avulsed tooth in. This may surprise you. It may even sound strange, but over 30 years ago dental research determined that this is the best storage medium for an avulsed tooth – better than water. This is because milk has a compatible osmolality (fluid pressure) to your tooth’s root cells. It’s one of the few readily available solutions here.

Milk will also keep your avulsed tooth from drying out. This is important since your tooth is alive. You don’t want its cells to swell up and burst – something that will happen if you place the tooth in water. Ultimately, milk does less damage to the tooth, which is good news if you hope to keep it.

Fixing Your Avulsed Tooth

Once you’ve placed your tooth in milk, give our office a call so we can get you in for an emergency appointment right away. We need to clean the area where your tooth was before using a splint to put the tooth back in place. You may need some antibiotics and possibly a root canal too.

You’ll definitely need to eat soft food for up to two weeks. All of this may sound a bit overwhelming to you in the height of your dental emergency, but the good news is we will do our best to save your tooth if you drop the tooth in milk and call us right away.

Share this post

Share on facebook
Share on linkedin
Share on twitter
Share on email

Recent Posts