Dentist
Each year, motor vehicle accidents cause millions of injuries for victims throughout the United States. Dental injuries are a common type of injury sustained during a vehicle collision.
Unfortunately, many accident victims don’t get their accident-related dental injuries appropriately treated, mainly because dental injuries occur quite often during catastrophic accidents. In these situations, victims tend to focus on their more severe or life-threatening injuries, putting their dental damage aside to address later, which can potentially cause even further harm.
Examples of Possible Accident-Related Dental Injuries
Even though it’s often overlooked in traumatic accidents, the mouth and teeth play a vital role in a person’s quality of life. Many problems arise when someone has sustained a dental injury, and many of these can cause substantial problems if they aren’t repaired promptly.
Many different types of mouth trauma qualify as dental injuries. Obvious ones include chipped teeth or teeth that get knocked out of their sockets. These are concerning injuries that could potentially require some type of artificial tooth or dental implant.
However, other more severe injuries could become catastrophic that also qualify as dental injuries. For example, an accident victim could sustain a broken jaw or a mandible fracture that could interfere with proper eating or talking. It can often take months for people to recover from these kinds of injuries, and their faces may look significantly different once healing completes.
Auto Accidents Can Cause Dental Injuries
Auto accidents are the cause of many dental injuries. The head is not immobilized in a seat belt like the body is, so the head is free to move and jerk about during a collision. Many hazards exist both inside and outside of the vehicle that can lead to dental harm including:
- Steering wheel impact
- Seat impacts
- Dashboard impact
- Airbag impact
- An impact by cargo or other items within the vehicle
- Broken glass
Furthermore, safety belts may also lead to dental trauma. Children are particularly susceptible to dental seat belt injury if they are not correctly placed in a child safety seat.
Accident-Related Dental Injuries Are Costly
There is often a significant expense that accompanies traumatic dental injuries. Dental injuries can leave holes and spaces in the mouth that allow for the teeth to shift, and alignment and spacing correction may be needed to rectify this. These dental shifts can require special equipment or hardware that facilitate the gradual moving of dental anatomy back into the correct place. The equipment that realigns the teeth is expensive, and an injured party will need frequent visits to a dental professional to repair the damage.
Dental repairs can create burdensome costs and lead to time spent missing work which can leave you or your family in quite a financial bind. Often, there are costs hidden below the surface that you mail fail to realize until it’s too late.
Don’t delay—schedule a dental examination today with a dentist so the extent of your injuries can be evaluated. Then, if you need to file a personal injury claim to cover expenditures and possible pain and suffering, you will have your dentist’s professional record as evidence of your injuries.
Resources:
Wikipedia, Dental Care
