Dental Restoration After an Accident: Get Your Smile Back
Where can you get dental restoration after an accident? Unfortunately, dental injuries are pretty common after an accident, be it a car accident, work-related accident, a fall, or more. These injuries can be quite severe, causing lasting damage to your teeth and mouth. This can lead to complications with everyday functions such as eating, talking, and breathing.
Unfortunately, dental injuries don’t just affect your physical health; they can significantly impact your smile. This can greatly impact your self-esteem and make you lonely or isolated. Therefore, it is important to seek dental restoration services to restore the full function and aesthetic appearance of your mouth.
Common Dental Injuries After an Accident
The type of dental restoration after an accident will depend on the injury you have suffered. These injuries range from minor to more serious ones, depending on the impact force on your mouth and teeth. Minor injuries include cracks and chips of the teeth, dislodgement, loosening, etc.
However, you could also suffer severe dental injuries, such as having your tooth (teeth) knocked off the socket. It is also possible to suffer soft tissue injuries on your hums, cheeks, and tongue, which can be pretty gruesome depending on the impact force. An even more severe injury that can occur in an accident is a jawbone fracture, which cannot lead to the loss of several teeth, or impaired jawbone function, amongst other complications.
Top Options for Dental Restoration After an Accident
You should not suffer in silence if you have suffered any of the above dental injuries. Many dental restoration options can help you smile again. Below is a look at some of the top ones:
Dental Bonding and Braces for Minor Damages
Dental bonding is one of the most common options for dental restoration after an accident. It is used to repair minor teeth damage, for example, cracks or chips. The bonding process uses a tooth-colored resin, which – on top of fixing the physical injury – enhances the appearance of the affected teeth. This aspect of dental bonding makes it even more helpful in repairing other imperfections, such as discolored teeth, exposed gums, and gaps between the teeth.
Besides dental bonding, braces are another dental restoration solution you can receive after a dental injury. Should your teeth be misaligned during an accident, they will need to be straightened, which is done using braces. There are several types of braces that you can get to restore your teeth, the most common ones being metal ones. Ceramic braces are another option, offering a discreet way of fixing your teeth.
However, if you want to avoid recovering from your accident while looking like a teenager, you should consider getting the Invisalign treatment. These clear braces (aligners) help to restore your teeth, with no one being the wiser to the fact that you are wearing them. However, whatever your preference is, you should talk to your orthodontist, who will help create a custom treatment plan for your teeth.
Crowns and Veneers for a White Smile
Crowns and veneers are two top dental restoration solutions to fix dental injuries while improving your smile. Veneers are bonded on the front part of the teeth, covering any imperfection. Therefore, they can help repair minor dental injuries sustained after an accident, such as cracked and chipped teeth.
Veneers, especially porcelain ones, offer a substantial aesthetic transformation to damaged teeth. Therefore, they are an excellent alternative to dental bonding if you want a shiny white smile.
Like veneers, dental crowns cover your damaged teeth. The only difference is that they are like a ‘cap’ covering the teeth’ entire surface. As a result, it protects a tooth from further damage while improving its structural strength.
Crowns also come in a variety of options, including porcelain and zirconia. These help to improve the appearance of your teeth, giving you a bright, shiny smile. There is also the option of ceramic crowns, which have a natural tooth color. Therefore, they easily blend in with your other undamaged teeth, making them perfect for dental restoration after an accident.
Dental Bridges and Implants for Missing Teeth
Unfortunately, accidents can result in serious dental injuries, which can cause you to lose one or more teeth. When this happens, you can’t simply cover up the damage; you must replace the missing teeth. Dental bridges and implants are excellent teeth restoration solutions that can help fix the injury and bring back your smile.
Dental bridges involve the use of dental crowns, which are placed on top of existing teeth that are adjacent to the missing one(s). These crowns anchor the replacement tooth/teeth, thus creating a permanent, natural-looking tooth (teeth).
By filling in the position of the missing teeth, dental bridges prevent the neighboring ones from shifting and misaligning. It also restores your smile – missing teeth can ruin your smile and make you self-conscious when interacting with others.
On the other hand, dental implants are artificial teeth inserted into your jawbone and permanently held in place with titanium screws. They feel and function like your natural teeth, which helps to restore your full oral function. They are also made using natural and aesthetically looking materials such as porcelain, ceramic, and zirconia, which restore your smile. Therefore, they are an excellent option for dental restoration after an accident.
A Full Smile Makeover Treatment
Some accidents can be quite serious, leading to very severe dental injuries. These can include multiple tooth loss, jawbone fractures, severe injuries to the gums and cheeks, and more. When this happens, you will need more comprehensive dental restorations, which is what a full smile makeover involves.
A dental office offers full smile makeover treatments as a custom package to fix all your dental problems. It covers solutions such as repairing damaged teeth, tooth replacement, gum tissue surgery, and jawbone surgery, making it the perfect solution for dental restoration after an accident.
A complete smile makeover treatment can also help to fix other underlying dental issues such as misaligned bites, discolored teeth, recessed gums, gum disease, and more. Therefore, in addition to restoring your optimal oral health, the treatment gives you a fantastic smile and a huge confidence boost.
Other Important Treatment Options
Getting a dental restoration after an accident will help fix your dental injuries. However, it would be best if you did not forget to take care of other injuries you might have suffered. For example, it is common to experience different injuries to your ears, eyes, muscles, bones, and joints.
These additional injuries can be pretty painful. They can also render day-to-day tasks such as moving, hearing, seeing, and using your limbs impossible. Scars to your face and other body parts can also affect your smile ad overall appearance.
Therefore, on top of fixing your dental injuries, you should remember to seek out other necessary medical care. For example, you should visit an eye or ear doctor if you have eye sockets or ear injuries. You should also use the services of an orthopedic doctor or physical therapist if you have suffered any form of damage to your musculoskeletal system. Some injuries might even require surgical intervention, which you can discuss with your doctor.
What to Do After Suffering a Dental Injury During an Accident
Dental injuries suffered during an accident can have long-term effects. Therefore, you should take prompt action to avoid these effects and restore your smile. If you have suffered any form of dental trauma during an accident, below are some steps you should take:
Preserve Your Tooth if Possible
As you can observe from the above solutions for dental restoration after an accident, replacing a lost tooth is a lot of work. Therefore, whenever possible, you should try to avoid going this route – which you can do by preserving your natural tooth or teeth if they are knocked out.
Your dentist can easily save your natural tooth as long as it is viable. This will restore your smile while saving you from costly dental procedures. There are several ways to preserve your tooth when knocked out. The first is to re-insert it back into its socket. If this is impossible, you can place it in your mouth, next to your cheek. Putting it in a container with milk is another technique to help preserve it.
Whatever method you choose, you should ensure that the knocked tooth is cleaned. You can do this by gently rinsing it with water or milk. Once you are done preserving your tooth, you can present it to your dentist, who will determine if it is viable enough to be used.
Make an Appointment With Your Dentist
Dental injuries can be pretty excruciating, which can be quite uncomfortable for you. Therefore, you should visit your dentist as soon as possible whenever you suffer a dental injury during an accident. If you are trying to save a knocked-out tooth, you should seek medical care within 30 to 60 minutes; otherwise, its viability will significantly decrease.
It is always a good idea to visit a dentist immediately, even with minor injuries that are not concerning. If left untreated, dental issues such as cracked, chipped, or loose teeth can worsen, leading to more severe problems such as tooth loss. Injuries to your gum tissues and cheeks can also cause an infection. Therefore, you should seek dental care immediately after an injury.
Contact Your Insurance Provider
Getting a dental restoration after an accident is not cheap. Therefore, unless you are prepared to pay for everything, you should contact your insurance provider to find out if the services you seek are covered.
Many health insurance services can cover your dental restoration after an accident. One of the top ones is Medicare Advantage, with most plans covering dental services. You might also be covered if you have been insured with a group health provider as part of your employment contract. Besides your insurance provider, you can also talk to your dentist about your insurance coverage, and they can even help you get the most out of your plan.
Hire an Attorney
If the accident that caused your dental injury was due to someone else’s negligence, you might be entitled to compensation. You can use the payment received to cover your medical expenses, including dental restoration and other costs, such as car repair. In addition, an accident attorney can help you simplify filing an insurance claim or dealing with insurance companies. Only use an attorney with a good track record of successful claims
Why Is Dental Restoration After an Accident Important?
Dental health is integral to your overall health; dental injuries sustained during an accident can negatively impact it. Aside from the physical strain of the injuries, issues such as damaged or lost teeth, broken jawbone, and injured gums can ruin your smile.
On top of that, dental injuries can cause low self-esteem and stress, and anxiety during social interactions. Some injuries can also make simple tasks such as eating or talking problematic, which can be very isolating. All of these can negatively impact your mental well-being, and that is why you should consider hiring personal injury attorneys in some cases.
But perhaps the most significant risk of dental injuries is that they can cause more severe dental and overall health issues. For example, untreated damage to the teeth can result in tooth loss, while infections in gum tissue can lead to health complications in other parts of the body. Getting a dental restoration after an accident is thus essential, not just for restoring your smile but also for your overall health.
Dental injuries are common but often overlooked due to other concerns during an accident. However, they can be quite severe, leading to serious health complications on top of ruining your smile. Therefore, you should never delay seeking dental care in a dental office, even for injuries that don’t seem severe.
If you are looking for dental restoration services after an accident, the above are some of the options available for you. There are many dental care services that can help fix your injury and restore your smile, whether you are suffering from a minor or a severe dental problem. You should also seek the services of a personal injury attorney if your dental injuries are a result of negligence.