All you need to know about the project

Description of the project and its aims

Accidental injuries to teeth occur frequently. We observe fractured, loose, and even knocked out teeth. In most cases, the upper incisors are affected. The consequences can seriously affect facial aesthetics and thus even result in mental health problems. Treating the consequences of such injuries can be extremely complex, burdensome, and costly.

In most cases, the milk teeth of small children and the permanent teeth of children and teenagers are affected, as the youngsters – following their natural desire to move – are frequently involved in falls. Those accidents occur mainly at home, at the swimming pool, at school, or during exercise. For this age group, the loss of a tooth in an accident means that often unsightly structures of limited functionality must be worn for years – during puberty of all times, as permanent dental prostheses (or implants) can only be implemented after physical growth is completed.

HOWEVER – In principle, avulsed teeth can be re-implanted in the jaw with the best prospects of healing and permanent preservation.

The main prerequisite is that the sensitive cells of the root surface are not damaged. Such damage can occur within minutes if the tooth is notproperly stored. Until the patient can see a dentist, so much tissue may be destroyed that proper healing is out of the question. Only an immediate rescue of knocked out teeth in a special storage medium allows the cells at the root surface to survive long enough. Precisely to this end the first tooth rescue box was developed in 1994 (a small vial which contains a special cell nutrient solution). It has proved its worth over the years in many scientific studies and also in a large number of tooth accidents.

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Institutions

Currently, we are working with more than 49.200 institutions in 7 countries

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Tooth accidents

We have monitored more than 8.900 tooth accidents so far.

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TRB locations

More than 16.800 tooth rescue box locations are registered online.

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Project partners

Our project is supported by more than 600 partner organisations.

Project status

Aims and benefits of the project

  1. 1 To save teeth in as many cases as possible and thus maintain the dental health of those involved after a tooth accident
  2. 2 To relieve the funding agencies – accident insurance, public and private health insurance – with regard to the extremely high lifelong follow-up costs of tooth accidents when teeth are not successfully rescued
  3. 3 To educate the public countrywide on issues concerning tooth accidents and tooth rescue
  4. 4 To expand the availability of tooth rescue boxes at reasonably selected locations
  5. 5 To locate quickly and easily the nearest tooth rescue box after a tooth accident
  6. 6 To establish a sustainable, science-based tooth rescue infrastructure
  7. 7 To collect centralised statistics on dental trauma

Realisation in practice

Establishing a tooth rescue infrastructure

  1. We ask ourselves where and when in a community/town/district a tooth accident might happen.

  2. These tooth accident risk points are then visualised on a project planning map.

  3. Several tooth accident scenarios are then simulated by time and location on this map

  4. After that, the first aim is to install tooth rescue boxes right at each risk point for tooth accidents or, with certain points, to install them at a small distance so that they can be reached within 5-10 minutes at the most

  5. Information events on the project with a personal handover of the first tooth rescue box

  6. Actual distribution of the tooth rescue boxes and publication, together with all project partners

  7. Official handover of the implemented tooth rescue infrastructure to the town/community/district and start of scientific monitoring

  8. Used tooth rescue boxes will be replaced free of charge within 72 hours after an accident is reported

Benefits of this project

  1. It has a simple, but at the same time very efficient structure

  2. It is scientifically monitored by several universities

  3. It has a short run-up time – within a few weeks, the project can be implemented in any town, community or district

  4. It becomes immediately effective and relieves accident insurance companies as well as public and private health insurance companies with a short time

  5. It establishes a network across a whole town for the benefit of all those involved (schools, swimming pools, childcare facilities, sports clubs, dentists, pharmacies, public health authorities, emergency services, families with children, athletes, etc.)