When you fall down and knock out a tooth, you may think that you are going to be left with a gap in your bright and shiny smile. However, there are things that you can do to help make sure that you don't have that gap. 

Clean the Debris

One thing you are going to want to do is to make sure that you clean off any debris that may be left on your tooth from hitting the ground. You may want to brush off any large things, but then you are going to wash the smaller pieces off. Don't turn the water on full blast to do that; you just want to use a very gentle stream and hold the tooth under the water. Make sure that you are holding the tooth by the crown instead of the root because you don't want to do anything that may damage the root, which would impede the chances of the tooth reintegrating into your jaw. If there is any gum tissue left on the root of your tooth, leave that alone, because it can help with your tooth settling back into place. 

Place it Back into the Jaw

You want to make sure that your tooth is stored properly while you are waiting to go see the dentist, and the very best place for you to do that is your jaw. What you want to do is to try to gently put the tooth back into its socket. That way the root of the tooth is protected and it has a good chance of starting to reintegrate with your jaw and sticking where it belongs. Do not try to force it back into place because you don't want to damage either your tooth or the socket. If your tooth doesn't go back in, you want to put it in a cup and cover it in spit, which helps to protect it. If you can't generate enough spit to cover your tooth, you can use milk. The pH level of milk is quite similar to that of spit. Your tooth won't get dried out and it will be protected. 

If you have knocked out a tooth, you want to do everything you can to make sure that it has the best chance to heal. No matter what you do, you want to make sure that you go to see the dentist as quickly as possible, to make sure that your tooth will heal correctly. 

Contact a dental office like Milner Dentistry for more information.