What to Do If Your Child Swallows a Loose Tooth

This happens more than people think, and it is almost always fine, but I understand why it sends parents into a small panic text chain with every other parent they know.

What actually happens

A swallowed tooth follows the same path as, say, an accidentally swallowed grape seed or small food item. It travels through the digestive system and passes naturally, typically within a day or two. Baby teeth are small, smooth, and not sharp in the way people picture; there's very little risk of it causing internal harm in a normal, healthy swallow.

When it's genuinely not a big deal

If your child swallowed the tooth, is breathing normally, isn't coughing or gagging, and seems otherwise fine; this is the overwhelming majority of cases. No trip to urgent care needed. No need to search through anything, as tempting as that is.

When to actually call someone:

This is more about how it went down than the tooth itself:

• Choking, gagging, or difficulty breathing at the moment it happened

• Persistent coughing afterward

• Complaints of pain in the throat or chest that don't resolve quickly

Any of those warrant a call to your pediatrician or a trip to urgent care; not because the tooth itself is dangerous, but because those symptoms suggest something got momentarily lodged somewhere it shouldn't have.

The part that actually matters to your kid

Here's the thing I always tell parents, half-joking but also not: your child is not worried about digestion. They're worried the Tooth Fairy won't come because there's no tooth under the pillow. That part has an easy fix;  a note explaining the tooth "found its own way" works just fine, and most kids over 5 or 6 find the story funny rather than upsetting. The Tooth Fairy, magically, always seems to know anyway.

-Dr. Joya