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.

Causes and associated symptoms

If a child bites his tongue accidentally - during a fall, a blow, or while talking while eating - the reason is quite clear: carelessness and inability (or unwillingness) to use routine safety rules. But when tongue injuries occur constantly, and for no apparent reason, this can be caused by the following circumstances:

In case of malocclusion, tongue injuries are not the only symptom. Abnormal abrasion of teeth is often observed: teeth that bear increased load are more susceptible to caries; the child may complain of excessive sensitivity of these teeth. And in the ligamentous apparatus of teeth that do not participate or weakly participate in chewing food, an inflammatory or degenerative process (periodontitis or periodontal disease) may be observed.

A characteristic symptom of improper attachment of the frenulum is the late onset of pronunciation of sounds such as “r”, hard “l” and “n” or the child’s complete inability to pronounce words with such sounds correctly.

Paresthesia can be caused by frequent consumption of hot food, exposure to aggressive chemical compounds on the tongue, as well as diseases of the autonomic and central nervous systems.

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.

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.

How to speed up wound healing

After the pain disappears and the bleeding stops, special measures can be taken to help speed up recovery and quickly restore damaged tissue:

brushing your teeth daily and thoroughly rinsing your mouth after brushing (this will help prevent wound infection);
daily rinsing of the mouth with infusions and decoctions of medicinal herbs (for example, chamomile);
Instead of infusions and herbal decoctions, you can take any antiseptic drug (for example, Furacilin).

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.

How to help your child

A child can bite his tongue from any side - from above, from the side, and from below. Particularly severe bleeding is possible if the lower part is injured, because there are many blood vessels passing through it.

If your baby complains of pain in the tongue and you notice a slight bleeding injury, you need to take the following measures:

First of all, reassure the baby, because most children are frightened by the sight of blood, and biting the tongue is often very painful.
If your child bites his tongue while eating, you should first rinse your mouth and then apply a tampon to the wound.
You need to stop the bleeding using a tampon made of a sterile bandage folded in several layers. If there is no bandage nearby, you can apply pressure to the wound with a clean handkerchief.
When biting the upper part of the tongue, the bandage is pressed against the palate.
If the tongue is damaged on the side, the bandage tampon is pressed against the gum, and when the tip is bitten, it is pressed against the teeth.
If a child bites his tongue from below, the swab should be placed under the tongue and pressed on top of the tongue with a finger or spoon.
The tampon should be replaced with a clean one as necessary, keeping it in the mouth until the bleeding stops.
Applying ice or another cold object to the damaged tongue helps stop bleeding. It is recommended to wrap the ice cube in a clean bandage.
When the bleeding has stopped, the wound should be disinfected. For this, it is optimal to use hydrogen peroxide, and the use of brilliant green or iodine is not recommended (such products can burn the mucous membrane). It is acceptable to use methylene blue or chlorhexidine.
If the pain is severe, you can use an anesthetic gel, which is used in babies when teething. You can also give paracetamol, taking into account the age of the child when selecting the dosage.
After biting your tongue, you should wait a few hours to eat food, and you should avoid sour and hot foods for at least 5 hours, since such food will only increase the pain.

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.

First aid

If the question arises about what can be done if you bite your tongue, then most likely there is significant damage and severe pain. A small wound heals in a fairly short time and does not bother the person in any way. Deep injuries are accompanied by pain and bleeding.

Tongue biting in children requires urgent medical attention to prevent dangerous consequences. You should not ignore the pain and hope that it will disappear on its own. Due to the child’s undeveloped immunity, an infection can easily penetrate into the damaged tissue and spread further throughout the body through the bloodstream. The doctor will be able to properly treat the wound and prescribe further treatment.

If for one reason or another it is impossible to visit a doctor, you can provide first aid at home. In most cases, at this stage, therapy ends, and further visits to a specialist are no longer required.

If bleeding occurs after biting your tongue hard, you should try to stop it. To do this, use pressure: press the tongue against the palate or gum.

Important! You can reduce the intensity of the inflammatory process and stop the flow of blood using a cold compress. An ice cube from the freezer works great.

To calm the child and reduce the intensity of pain, you can use a lidocaine solution, in which a cotton swab is moistened and applied to the injured area. There is no need to apply too much lidocaine. Otherwise, irritation will occur. In addition, it is necessary to ensure that the child does not accidentally swallow saliva with the drug until it is absorbed into the tissue.

In some cases, stitches are required, which only a specialist can do. Self-medication is not recommended.

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.

Medicines

Only a doctor can tell you how to treat a tongue-biting wound after first aid. As a rule, medications are prescribed to promote rapid healing, eliminate pain and swelling:

Solcoseryl paste is an excellent drug for getting rid of the inflammatory process, accelerating the regeneration of injured tissues, preventing secondary infections (apply up to 5 times a day to the damaged area until complete healing);
Metrogyl gel contains chlorhexidine and metronidazole, which effectively cope with pathogenic microorganisms and inflammatory processes (apply up to 3 times a day for 7 days);
Hydrogen peroxide is a simple and affordable remedy used for wound healing and antiseptic treatment after biting the tongue (dilute with water in equal parts and rinse the mouth up to 2 times a day).

If a child bites his tongue, then compresses with hydrogen peroxide can be applied to the injured area by soaking a cotton swab in the product.

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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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