Principal General Dentist at Platinum Orthodontics and Advanced Dentistry, Dr Maclean Okang has said that calmness is an important factor to save the natural tooth when one is involved in an accident.

His comment followed the report of a survivor, Joshua Ayinga, who lost his teeth in a gory accident at the Kyekyewere community stretch of the Accra-Kumasi Highway in 2020.

According to him, the teeth has a greater chance of surviving when they are well attached to the gum.

He said people panic and forget to look for the displaced teeth. Therefore, by the time the patient is taken to see the dentist, the natural teeth might have lost its chance to be fixed.

Mr Okang stated that when a tooth falls off and its not found, the case should be reported to the general dentist as soon as possible for the tooth to be examined, adding that most people forget to examine the jaw and jaw joints.

Speaking in an interview on Joy FM's Ultimate Health, Sunday, Mr Okang outlined basic steps one ought to take immediately a tooth falls out by accident to save the natural teeth.

The steps are;

1. The need to be calm.
2. Slow down and search for the broken tooth.
3. If found, hold it by the crown (white part what we see in the mouth).
4. Rinse it with saliva or milk rinse it with milk.
5. Put it back the way you think the teeth should be.
6. Get the person to the dentist within the first one hour.

He also advised motorists to report to the dental clinic for a checkup if they get involved in an accident.

“People on motor bike, when they fall and they land on their chin without the helmet the commonest place they could fracture the neck and corneal which is the jaw joint but because they fall and get up and they’re fine, they just move the bike.

“So just see a dentist they will check and do the necessarily x-ray if it is broken you will be referred to the appropriate specialist and it will be sorted out for you. Always a general dentist if it is the soft tissue whether the lips, gum, tongue, floor of mouth it will be fixed and if it is hard tissue such as tooth jaw it can be fixed,” he stressed.