Symptom guide

My child has toothache: what to do tonight, in Karnal

For tonight: paracetamol at the dose for your child's weight and age, following the chart on the pack or your paediatrician's guidance, a cold compress against the outside of the cheek for short spells, soft cool food, and sleep with the head slightly raised. A warm salt-water rinse helps if they can spit reliably. Do not rub adult painkilling gel on the gums, and do not give leftover antibiotics. Then get the tooth looked at within a day or two: children's toothache rarely resolves on its own, and decay moves faster in a milk tooth.

💬 WhatsApp about my child's toothache 📞 Call the Clinic

Clinic hours Mon-Sat 10 AM-2 PM & 5 PM-8 PM. If your child's face is swelling, they have a fever, or a tooth has been knocked out in a fall, read what to do in a dental emergency now.

Outside clinic hours, or urgent: +91 82952 70647 (mobile, reaches the doctors directly).

During clinic hours: 0184-407 3774 (front desk) or WhatsApp. Mon-Sat 10 AM-2 PM & 5 PM-8 PM.

What you can do right now

Do

✓ Paracetamol, dosed for your child. Use the weight and age chart on the pack, or the dose your paediatrician has given you. Use the cup or syringe supplied, not a kitchen spoon, and note the time.

✓ Cold compress on the cheek. A cool pack in a cloth, 10 to 15 minutes with breaks. Never ice straight onto skin.

✓ Warm salt-water rinse, if they can spit. Half a teaspoon of salt in warm, not hot, water. Younger children should skip it.

✓ Soft, cool, unsweetened food. Curd, khichdi, banana, dal. Avoid very hot, cold, sweet and crunchy food.

✓ Prop their head up on an extra pillow, and expect the pain to be worse at bedtime. Keep brushing gently near the sore tooth.

Avoid

✗ Adult numbing or painkilling gel on the gums. Not formulated for young children, some ingredients are not considered suitable for them, and a numb mouth makes a child chew their own lip without noticing. Ask us or your paediatrician first.

✗ Clove oil poured into the cavity. An old family remedy, but undiluted oil burns a child's gum and tongue easily.

✗ An aspirin or any tablet held against the gum. Painkillers work through the bloodstream, not by contact, and a tablet against gum tissue leaves an acid burn. Aspirin is not given to children unless a doctor prescribes it.

✗ Heat on a swollen cheek. It encourages an infection to spread. Cold outside, warm rinses inside.

✗ Leftover antibiotics from a previous illness, theirs or a sibling's. Wrong drug, wrong dose for the weight, and they mask how serious a swelling is.

✗ A bottle of milk or juice to settle them at night. It soothes for ten minutes and feeds the decay causing the pain.

What it might be

Decay in a milk tooth. By far the most common. Milk-tooth enamel is thinner, so decay reaches the nerve sooner and a small hole can cause real pain. Treated as part of children's dentistry.
An abscess from a decayed tooth. A puffy gum, a pimple-like bump beside the tooth, a bad taste, or a face starting to swell. Needs seeing promptly.
Food trapped between two teeth, often relieved by careful flossing. Or a new tooth coming through: erupting six-year molars can leave the gum sore for a few days.
A knock or fall. A tooth that is loose, moved or painful to bite after a fall should be checked. See broken teeth.
Something that is not a tooth. A mouth ulcer, which looks like a small pale crater and settles in a week. Or an ear, throat or sinus infection, which all present as a child holding their jaw and saying their teeth hurt. If we find nothing dental, we say so and point you to your paediatrician.

If a tooth has been knocked out in a fall

The one thing here where minutes matter, and the right action depends entirely on which kind of tooth it is.

A baby tooth

Do not put it back in. Pushing a milk tooth into the socket risks damaging the adult tooth still forming underneath.

Keep your child calm and sitting up, and press clean gauze on the socket for 10 minutes without lifting to check. Bring them in the same day anyway, so we can check the neighbouring teeth and the developing adult tooth.

An adult tooth

This may be re-implantable, and the window is roughly an hour. Find the tooth and hold it only by the white crown, never the root. If dirty, rinse briefly in milk or clean water; do not scrub it or wrap it in tissue.

Put it into a container of milk, or back into the socket for an older child who will not swallow it, then come straight in and call on the way. Full steps on the knocked-out tooth page and the emergency page.

If you are unsure which kind it was, bring the tooth and the child. Children usually start losing milk teeth around age six.

When to come in, and when not to wait

Book within a day or two

Pain that has come and gone more than once, or wakes them at night.

They avoid one side when chewing, or you can see a hole or a grey patch on a tooth.

A tooth is loose in a child too young to be losing teeth, or has changed colour after a knock.

Same day, please do not wait

The face, cheek or under-jaw is swelling, or growing.

Fever, unusual drowsiness, refusing to drink, or unable to open the mouth properly.

Any difficulty swallowing or breathing, or swelling reaching the eye or neck. That is a hospital emergency department today, not a wait for the clinic. See emergency guidance.

Paracetamol settling the pain does not mean an infection has gone. Children can seem entirely well a few hours into a spreading infection.

What happens at the visit

We talk to your child first, not about them
What is happening is explained in words they understand, before it happens. Nothing is done behind their back: a child surprised once stops trusting the room.
A look, and an X-ray only if we need one
We examine every tooth, not only the one they blamed. A routine X-ray is taken where it is needed to see decay between teeth or the tooth developing underneath.
Comfort first
If a tooth is the source and your child allows it, we relieve the pain at that visit with the area numbed. If they have reached their limit, we stop and bring them back. That is a normal path, not a failed appointment.
The plan, explained to you
What is wrong, the options, and what stops it recurring, which for most children comes down to night-time drinks and who does the brushing.

The honest answers, parent to parent

We will not promise your child does not cry. Some children cry at a new room and a stranger, however gently things are done. What we do promise: nobody is held down, nobody raises their voice, and we would rather bring your child back for a second short visit than force a first through.

Do not tell them it will not hurt, and do not use us as a threat. The first costs you their trust the moment anything feels strange; "eat more sweets and you will need an injection" arrives as a punishment they are now expecting. "The doctor is going to look at the sore tooth" is truthful and enough.

It is not your fault, and it is not too late. Childhood decay is very common and has more to do with how often sugar reaches the teeth than with anything else. Children's care at the clinic is on the kids' dentistry page.

What parents ask us

What can I give my child for tooth pain tonight?

Paracetamol is the usual first choice for children, but the dose depends on your child's weight and age, so follow the dosing chart on the pack for their weight or the instructions your paediatrician has already given you. Do not guess and do not scale down an adult tablet. Alongside that: a warm salt-water rinse if the child is old enough to spit reliably, a cold compress against the outside of the cheek, soft cool food, and sleeping with the head slightly raised.

Can I rub a numbing gel on my child's gums?

Not without asking first. Adult painkilling and numbing gels are not designed for small children, some of the ingredients are not considered suitable for young children at all, and a numbed mouth makes a child more likely to bite their own lip or cheek. If you want something topical, ask us or your paediatrician what is appropriate for your child's age before using it.

They are only milk teeth. Does a cavity really need treating?

Yes. Milk teeth let a child chew and speak properly and hold the space that adult teeth will move into. A decayed milk tooth also sits directly above the adult tooth forming in the bone, so an untreated infection there can mark or displace that adult tooth. And a child in pain sleeps badly and eats badly, which matters on its own.

My child's tooth was knocked out. Do I put it back in?

Not if it is a baby tooth. A knocked-out milk tooth is not put back, because pushing it into the socket can damage the adult tooth developing underneath. Keep the child calm, control any bleeding with gentle pressure on clean gauze, and bring them in the same day so we can check for other injury. A knocked-out adult tooth is the opposite situation and is urgent, with a window of roughly an hour.

Will my child be in pain at the appointment, and will they cry?

We cannot promise a child will not cry, and we will not pretend otherwise, because some children cry at a new room and a stranger regardless of what happens. What we can tell you is how we work: nothing is done by force, the child is told what will happen before it happens in words they understand, and we stop and reschedule rather than push through a child who has had enough.

How do I get them to come without frightening them?

Keep it short, calm and truthful. Say the doctor is going to look at the sore tooth with a small mirror and a light. Avoid promising "it will not hurt at all", because that plants the idea that hurting was possible and costs you their trust if anything feels odd. Avoid using the dentist as a threat for eating sweets. A child who arrives expecting punishment is very hard to win back.

Tell us what your child is describing

Message us your child's age, which side hurts, since when, and whether there is swelling or fever. We will tell you honestly whether this needs today or can wait for a calm appointment.

💬 WhatsApp the clinic 📞 0184-407 3774

We reply within 15 minutes during clinic hours.