Knocked-Out Tooth? Here's How to Save It

Pick it up the right way

Hold the tooth by the crown (the chewing surface), never by the root. Touching the root can damage the cells needed for it to reattach.

Rinse gently, don't scrub

If it's dirty, rinse briefly with clean water. Don't scrub it, use soap, or remove any tissue still attached to it.

Try to reinsert it

If possible, gently place the tooth back in its socket facing the right way and hold it in place by biting down softly on gauze. Reinsertion within about 5 minutes gives the best odds. If that's not possible, get it into storage immediately rather than carrying it in your hand.

What to store it in — and what to avoid

Milk is the best easy option: cold, fresh milk supports the root cells far better than saliva does, and it's simple to drop the tooth straight into a small container of it. A pharmacy tooth-preservation kit (sold as "Save-A-Tooth" or similar, containing Hank's solution) does even better and can extend viability up to 24 hours if you happen to have one on hand. Saliva works if milk isn't available. Never plain water — tap or bottled — since the root cells can't tolerate it and it damages them faster than dry air would.

What not to do

• Don't touch or scrub the root
• Don't use soap or scrub the tooth clean
• Don't let it dry out
• Don't store it in plain water, tap or bottled
• Don't wrap it in a tissue or cloth

Get to us immediately

Survival odds are good in the first 5 minutes, still reasonable up to about an hour with proper storage, and drop off sharply beyond that. Call or message us on WhatsApp at 055-985-8845 right away, including after hours, and come in as fast as you safely can. If you're not sure whether this counts as urgent enough to call right now, it does; see what to do in the first 10 minutes of a dental emergency for the broader picture.

A tooth that's successfully reimplanted sometimes still needs a root canal afterward once the nerve is checked, which is normal and doesn't mean the save failed. Our emergency dental care covers exactly this kind of trauma, start to finish.

The ADA's MouthHealthy guide to dental emergencies and the American Academy of Pediatrics' first-aid guide for a knocked-out permanent tooth both walk through the same steps in more detail.