What to do if a child bites his tongue until it bleeds

February 25, 2019

If adults, as a result of carelessness, injure the mucous membrane, then many easily experience this moment and do not give it due attention. But the situation is much more complicated if the problem arises in a child. For example, a child bit his tongue until it bled. What should you do in this case and how dangerous is the situation? Do you need to urgently go to the doctor? We invite you to read the material prepared by the editors of the UltraSmile.ru portal and find out the answers to these important questions.

How to help a child if he bites his tongue?

First rule: inspect the extent of the damage

Children are very active and restless, so the situation when a child bites his tongue is quite common. For example, with the smallest children, trouble could occur even in the process of learning to walk, when the kids take their first steps. With older children, the reason may be active play, sports, talking while laughing and eating, or pampering. But whatever the reason, children of any preschool and primary school age react quite sharply to such trauma; they begin to cry and be capricious. For any caring parent, this behavior causes panic. However, on the contrary, you need to calm down and try to distract the child in order to conduct an oral examination.

“The reason that a child might bite his tongue is sometimes not only the consequences of everyday life. The problem could also arise due to malocclusion or dental problems (for example, abnormal wear of teeth). If the teeth are positioned incorrectly in the oral cavity (in particular, with a distal and mesial bite), then they can often provoke injuries to the mucous membrane, injure the lips and the inside of the cheeks, and the tongue. Therefore, be sure to show your child to the orthodontist at a very early age, especially if this situation is repeated more than once,” says E.A. Kuznetsov, orthodontist.

Small children begin to cry and be capricious.
When the first tears have passed, bring the baby to a window or light source, ask him to open his mouth and carefully examine the mucous membrane: the injury may be located on the tip, back of the tongue, or on the outer, inner or lateral surface. It is necessary to assess the size and depth of the damage, the presence of swelling and hematomas, in order to understand whether the situation requires an emergency visit to the doctor or at first the baby just needs to be given first aid and observed.

Child chews tongue

Often, tongue injury occurs due to the baby’s tongue chewing habit. Most often, the problem occurs when teeth grow - the baby refuses teethers, but actively sucks his finger or tongue. But a bad habit may have other reasons.

Why do children chew their tongue?

Hunger . When it's feeding time, babies often start chewing their tongue instead of eating. When the child grows up a little and learns to voice his desires, the problem will disappear on its own.
Weaning off the pacifier . If you take away your child's favorite pacifier, but do not allow him to suck his finger or put foreign objects into his mouth, the baby begins to suck and chew the tongue.
Thoughtfulness . Often children, if they are very passionate about something or are thinking about something, stick out or chew their tongue. The problem also arises if the baby is bored and suffers from a lack of parental attention.

Most often, the habit of chewing tongue in children goes away on its own with age.

But if you notice that your baby obsessively chews his tongue all the time, contact a neurologist to identify nervous disorders in time.

Second rule: stop the bleeding

The tongue is an organ that is penetrated by blood vessels and nerve endings. Therefore, after a child bites his tongue hard, it will bleed. To stop the bleeding, you need to compress the blood vessels or promote their narrowing. This can be achieved using cold. Therefore, the first thing you should do is to invite your child to rinse his mouth with cool water. You can also take a sterile bandage or cotton wool and press firmly onto the wound for 5-10 minutes. This will also help block the access of saliva to the damaged mucosa. But if the bleeding cannot be stopped within half an hour, then you need to consult a doctor.

A cotton swab or bandage will help prevent bleeding

Some sources contain information that you can wrap ice in a napkin and apply it to the damaged surface of the tongue. We do not recommend doing this. Such actions in relation to young children are fraught with the development of undesirable consequences. Few children will be able to hold ice in their mouth normally and motionlessly, and the effect of ice on children’s delicate mucous membranes can provoke the development of sore throat and colds.

Possible complications

Wounded areas of the cheeks or tongue can become a prerequisite for the development of an infectious process on the mucous membrane, therefore, when an ulcer or extensive wound forms, a mandatory dental examination is required, followed by treatment of damaged areas of soft tissue.

If you do not seek medical help in a timely manner, the following complications may develop:

This is a disease of the oral cavity that tends to have cyclical exacerbations. Small ulcerations appear on the mucous membrane, which are very painful. They are also called aphthae;

The main cause of its occurrence is the herpes simplex virus. By the way, it is present in the blood of 99% of the population. Many factors, including biting your cheek and decreased immunity, lead to this disease occurring. Small bubbles with clear liquid, grouped into 10–20 elements, form on the affected area. After opening them, the ulcerated surface is covered with a weeping crust;

This is the most common consequence if an adult or child bites their cheek. It is characterized by pain of moderate intensity and redness of the damaged area. With adequate treatment and the absence of regular injury, it quickly resolves;

This is a disease that occurs after a person begins to frequently bite his cheek or lip. Children who have special bacteria living in their mouths are more susceptible to pathology if the child does not brush their teeth well. The lesion on the mucous membrane is covered with a grayish-yellow coating;

Ulcer malignancy

This is the most terrible consequence that can occur in those who often bite the mucous membrane. In other words, due to regular damage, the structure of tissues is restructured and their uncontrolled growth begins, which leads to cancer.

It is impossible to diagnose diseases on your own, so if you have the slightest suspicion of the development of complications, you should consult a dentist or therapist for advice.

Third rule: disinfect the wound

This must be done in any case, but it is especially important when the child bites his tongue hard while chewing food. In this situation, first of all, you need to remove all remnants and particles of food from your mouth, because... their presence and entry into the wound can provoke the development of an inflammatory process. Therefore, the first thing we do is rinse our mouth with water, the second thing is to brush our teeth with a toothbrush and toothpaste, and the third thing is to disinfect the wound.

What is suitable for this? For the little ones you can use Miramistin, for older children and those who are already able to hold more serious medications in their mouths and not swallow them - Chlorhexidine. You can also prepare a decoction of chamomile or sage for rinsing. Do not forget that before disinfection procedures it is important to thoroughly wash your and your child’s hands - you should not put dirty hands in your mouth. Also, the mechanical impact on the mucous membrane, if you use gels, should be minimal; you should not put pressure on the wound.

Under no circumstances should you treat the sensitive mucous membrane in your child’s mouth with hydrogen peroxide, much less iodine or brilliant green, potassium permanganate. Such actions can only aggravate the situation, causing a soft tissue burn. Also, avoid using antibiotics without consulting a specialist.

Be prepared for the fact that during treatment with anti-inflammatory drugs, the baby may complain of increased pain and burning - this is normal, because the tongue is a very sensitive organ.

Signs

The main symptom is the child complains of pain. Examine your tongue carefully in good lighting. The fresh wound bleeds and is clearly visible.

A tongue injury may be indicated by the baby’s complaints about discomfort when eating hot, sour foods. If you carefully examine the tongue, you can see swelling and hematoma.

Rule four: help your baby cope with pain

What to do if a child bites his tongue? Make sure that your baby has a minimum of discomfort after this unpleasant moment, because his tongue is not only damaged, but also very painful. Apply any gel to the mucous membrane that is suitable for sore gums during difficult teething. For example, “Kamistad Baby”, “Kalgel”. You can also give your child Nurofen or Panadol, Viburkol - these medications will comprehensively help relieve anxiety, prevent the appearance of fever, and reduce pain.

Painkillers will help your child survive the problem.

“My daughter recently lost all her eye teeth, and against this backdrop, a real nightmare began at home. She bit her entire tongue, sores and grooves appeared on it, the whole tongue was red. We went to the pediatrician, and she told me to use only Stomatidin for prevention and observe, supposedly, my daughter will get used to the new sensations from the grown teeth and it will pass. And I’m afraid that it will become like a bad habit!”
Sofia R., from correspondence on komarovskiy.net

But products such as Lidocaine or eye drops (some sometimes use them for other purposes and even recommend them as a topical anesthetic), which are in the home medicine cabinet, should not be used. These adult medications have many contraindications, have side effects and should not be swallowed, and rarely can any child not swallow saliva and sit motionless with their mouth open until the medicine takes effect.

Why does malocclusion form?

Statistics show that 90% of people have some signs of occlusion; The root cause of anomalies is considered to be genetics. However, heredity is far from the only factor.

According to orthodontic experts, the following factors influence the formation of the dentofacial apparatus in children:

artificial feeding: when breastfeeding a newborn, the jaw apparatus is formed more correctly, while the habit of sucking a pacifier inherent in “artificial babies” affects the process negatively;
difficulty changing teeth: loss of baby teeth too early or, conversely, with a delay can affect the health of the jaw apparatus;
injuries, untreated caries, inflammatory gum diseases (all this is fraught with jaw displacement).

A child’s habit of sucking their thumb in their sleep can also lead to malocclusion in the future. But for adults, the greatest danger is the loss of teeth: the absence of even one unit in the dentition can lead to a violation of the load distribution, as a result - to deformation of the occlusion (this is another argument in favor of dental implantation, and the dentition must be restored as quickly as possible - before a problem such as malocclusion appears).

Rule 5: In case of emergency, consult a doctor immediately.

Let us indicate which situations can be considered emergency and do not require a postponed visit to the doctor:

a lot of blood
bleeding cannot be stopped on its own for a long time,
the wound is very large and deep, more than five millimeters in diameter,
the wound began to fester,
It is discovered that the child has bitten through the tongue or even bit off the tip: in this case, there should not even be any questions about what to do. Of course, go to the doctor immediately,
the baby is in pain, but the pain is not relieved by analgesics and continues to increase,
the tongue itself is swollen, a thickening has appeared on it,
the wound does not heal for more than four days: a good sign if a gray coating appears on it - this is a protective fibrin film produced by our immune system,
the child’s lips turned blue, he developed convulsive tremors: this may indicate the presence of painful shock,
Against the background of the injury, the child’s condition worsened, the body temperature rose, and general malaise appeared: a viral or bacterial infection may have occurred. Often, against the background of a bitten tongue, a child may develop stomatitis.

In emergency cases, consult a doctor immediately.
In such cases, the baby may require the help of a pediatrician, traumatologist or maxillofacial surgeon, dentist, and even surgical intervention, such as suturing. If you do not contact a specialist or delay this, the situation may be fraught with consequences: the appearance of serious hematomas, infection of the lingual muscles, and the occurrence of serious speech defects in the future.

What are the consequences of “self-eating”?

If a “self-bite” happens occasionally, and after that the person follows all the rules of hygiene and oral care, the wound in most cases heals successfully. But sometimes, due to a careless attitude towards oneself or due to some other factors, secondary conditions develop - dangerous to health and life.

"Language Wars"

The best thing that can happen with a tongue injury is long-term pain.

This fleshy organ takes a long and painful time to heal, especially if the person has bitten his tongue very hard and the wound is deep.

Other consequences of bite are associated with infection and represent a chain of conditions arising from each other:

Glossitis. A tongue subject to inflammation changes its color and structure. There is discomfort, a slight burning sensation, and the person may lose the sense of taste.
Abscess. The tongue begins to swell from the inside, and the person cannot eat or speak normally due to pain.
Phlegmon. The inflammation reaches the point that the patient is no longer able to swallow or even breathe normally. Such a person is indicated for urgent hospitalization.

Damage to the buccal mucosa

Soft tissues heal quickly, but at the same time a pathogenic agent may have time to get into the wound. Typically, injuries to the buccal mucosa accompanied by infection lead to the following complications:

Aphthous stomatitis. The disease is prone to relapse. It is a collection of small ulcers on areas of the oral mucosa that cause unbearable pain to a person.
Herpetic stomatitis. Herpes lives in the bloodstream of 99% of people, so with low immunity there is a high risk that this virus will “wake up” and colonize the wound. With such a lesion, crowded small bubbles with liquid inside settle on the mucous membrane around the injured area.
Afta Bednar. The disease mainly affects children. A special type of bacteria begins to multiply in the wound due to poor oral hygiene. The mucous membrane becomes covered with a yellowish coating.

Teeth on lips...

There is a lot of loose fiber in the lips and a strong bite can not only cause a wound, but cut off part of it. After biting your lip, the following complications may occur:

Hematoma. Internal bleeding after biting can be quite severe. The lip swells, becomes painful, and its functions are partially impaired. A hematoma can have a complication in the form of purulent inflammation, which is very dangerous. The temperature rises to 40 degrees.
Inflammation. When an infection gets into the wound, the lip swells and fills with purulent exudate. The patient feels an unpleasant odor emanating from the site of injury. The condition requires urgent treatment.

Rule six: help the wound heal faster

Experts say that the human mucosa regenerates very quickly. But the whole problem is that the tongue is actively involved in the process of chewing food and is located in the mouth, where there is an excellent environment for the growth of bacteria. To ensure that the wound caused by biting your tongue heals faster and does not become an object for attack by bacterial colonies that live in the mouth and provoke an inflammatory process, try to follow several rules during the first 7-14 days:

for the first few hours after the injury, do not give the baby anything to drink or eat,
Adjust the child’s diet: there should be no irritating factors in the diet. Food – warm (not cold or hot), soft, pureed, mushy or liquid. Any foods that need to be chewed are excluded. Vitamin products should be present in the diet. To restore the epithelium of the mucous membrane, those containing vitamin C, B,
Monitor your baby’s oral hygiene: after each meal, rinse the mouth with water or herbal decoctions (chamomile, sage, St. John’s wort), and antiseptics. You should also thoroughly clean your teeth and gums twice a day with a brush and suitable paste; the tongue area should be avoided during the rehabilitation period.

Rinsing the mouth after every meal will help speed up healing.
If the situation occurred in the summer and your baby is healthy, then some parents, from their own experience, advise giving him ice cream, which will help relieve discomfort and pain. You can also listen to this advice if you consider it rational.

What means are used?

Tongue bite is a common injury. Liquid products are used. Rinsing relieves inflammation, pain, and accelerates wound healing. The following tools can be used:

Hydrogen peroxide. This is an excellent antiseptic with a mild effect. It will inhibit the development of bacteria, clean the wound, and speed up healing. A hydrogen peroxide solution is used for rinsing. 3% peroxide is diluted in water. Proportion 1:1. The number of rinses is twice a day, not more often. The solution should not be swallowed, so it is better not to use it if the child is injured. You can apply a tampon soaked in peroxide to the area of inflammation.
Salt solution. Salt perfectly disinfects and promotes wound healing. You need to prepare a low concentration saline solution. Just add a teaspoon of salt to a glass of water. To prevent the salt from settling, it must be stirred well. You need to rinse your mouth with this solution three times a day.
Antihistamines and antacids. They work in the same way as salt or peroxide. Additionally, if used together, acidity in the mouth can be controlled. Antacids include Gaviscon or Gelusil. Antihistamines – Diphenhydramine. It is necessary to use drugs from both groups simultaneously, in equal proportions. You can also make compresses with them. It is also possible to use them separately.
Rinse aids. Mouthwashes contain substances for healing wounds in the mouth. Therefore, they can also be used in case of injury. The instructions will tell you how to rinse. They can be used every time after eating. Hydrogen peroxide can be used to treat the wound.

What to do if you bite your tongue until it bleeds, do you need to treat it with hydrogen peroxide? We all know that any damage to the skin or mucous membranes is an entry point for a variety of infections.

It is necessary to treat all open wounds and wounds without exception. It is necessary to use special mild antiseptics in the oral cavity. Before using them, it is recommended to gently brush your teeth and rinse your mouth thoroughly.

Oral antiseptics are available today in various forms. These are rinses, sprays and lozenges. The most popular among them: “Furacilin”, “Antiangin”, “Miramistin”, “Trachisan”.

Rule seven: pay attention to the complex of concomitant diseases

As experts say, injuries to the tongue, as well as to the inside of the cheeks and lips, do not always occur in a child due to activity and restlessness. Sometimes they indicate the presence of some undetected diseases, especially if the situation repeats itself again and again. For example, the cause may be the presence of bite pathologies, abnormal attachment of the frenulum of the tongue, paresthesia (decreased sensitivity of nerve receptors). In the first two cases, an orthodontist, dentist, or pediatric surgeon will help solve the problem. If you have paresthesia, you will need to visit a neurologist, endocrinologist, and other specialists.

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Kinds

There are several types of occlusion anomalies; in pediatric orthodontics, there are six.

The following types are distinguished:

deep – it is characterized by excessive overlap of the upper jaw of the lower jaw;
cross - with this violation of closure, there is underdevelopment of the jaws on one side, with a characteristic intersection of the lower and upper dental arches;
mesial - it is typical for the lower jaw to move forward, with the lower incisors overlapping the upper ones;
open - with this disorder there is no closure of the upper and lower incisors, the patient has a gap between them;
distal - with this anomaly, the upper incisors move forward, this sign is combined with underdevelopment of the lower jaw and a reduction in the lower part of the face;
underestimated - characterized by underestimated closure, due to premature abrasion of teeth.

Before starting correction, it is necessary to establish the type of occlusion violation.

Comments

I read your article and a question came up a little off topic, but close. I recently had my teeth treated by a dentist, had crowns put in, and after that I started constantly biting my tongue. Why is this happening?

Alla (03/06/2019 at 11:40) Reply to comment

Editorial staff of the portal UltraSmile.ru (03/09/2019 at 08:47) Reply to comment