Symptoms
Symptoms & when to worry
Quick, calm answers to the questions parents actually search at midnight.
Symptoms checker
Start with what you're seeing — we'll help you decode it
Parents rarely walk into a dental office with a diagnosis. They walk in with a symptom — a swollen cheek, blood on the pillow, a child who won't chew on one side, a black spot that appeared overnight. This library indexes the pediatric-dental world from the symptom side, mapping what you're actually observing to the conditions that could plausibly explain it, sorted by likelihood and urgency. Every symptom page opens with the same triage question: how quickly does this need to be seen? Some symptoms (avulsed permanent tooth, spreading facial swelling, trauma with loss of consciousness) are hospital-hour emergencies. Others (mild cold sensitivity that resolves in seconds) are a fine reason to book a routine visit but not to disrupt your Saturday. We put the triage front and centre so you don't have to guess.
Beyond triage, each symptom entry walks through the two-to-five most common causes in the pediatric age band, what a pediatric dentist will actually do at the visit (exam, imaging, tests), and the range of treatments you should expect to be offered. Where the same symptom points to very different conditions in a 3-year-old versus a 12-year-old, we split the guidance by age band. Where a symptom can be caused by something outside dentistry — an ear infection referred to the jaw, a sinusitis presenting as upper-molar pain, a tongue-tie masquerading as a feeding problem — we say so and link to the right non-dental resources. The library is not a substitute for an exam, but it's designed to save you an unnecessary ER visit or, conversely, to stop you from waiting three days on something that shouldn't wait an hour.
The four things this pillar actually covers
Pain and sensitivity
Toothache, cold sensitivity, biting pain, spontaneous pain, referred pain — with a decision tree for which type of pain means what.
Bleeding, swelling and lumps
Gum bleeding while brushing, swollen cheek, fistula (gum pimple), soft lumps and hard lumps — from benign to same-hour urgent.
Colour and texture changes
White spots, brown spots, black lines, chalky patches, pitting on new molars — mapped to caries, fluorosis, MIH and staining.
Function and behaviour
Chewing on one side, refusing food, teeth grinding at night, mouth-breathing, snoring, speech changes — signals that often reach a dentist last.
How it works
Four steps from question to answer
Describe what you see
Use the symptom filter to find the closest match — or search by the word your child used.
Check the urgency
Every page opens with a triage box: emergency, same-day, same-week, or routine.
Understand the likely cause
The two-to-five most probable conditions for your child's age band, in order of likelihood.
Take the next step
One tap to a specialist who treats that condition frequently and accepts your insurance.
Frequently asked
Answers to the questions parents ask us most
My child's tooth was knocked out. What should I do right now?
If it's a permanent tooth, pick it up by the crown (not the root), rinse briefly in cold milk or saline if dirty, and re-implant it in the socket if you can. If not, transport it in cold milk (not water) and see an emergency dentist within 60 minutes — every minute out of the mouth reduces the chance of a successful re-implantation. Do not attempt to re-implant a knocked-out baby tooth.
Is a gum pimple always serious?
A recurring "pimple" on the gum above a tooth (fistula) usually indicates chronic infection at the tooth's root, even when the tooth doesn't hurt. It needs an X-ray and typically a pulpotomy, root canal or extraction — untreated, the infection can damage the underlying permanent tooth.
My toddler bumped their front tooth and it turned grey. Should I be worried?
Grey or dark discoloration after trauma suggests pulp haemorrhage. Some primary teeth recover colour over weeks; others develop pulp necrosis and need extraction. All post-trauma primary incisors should be reviewed at 2, 6 and 12 weeks to check for symptoms, mobility or fistula formation.
Why does my child snore or breathe through their mouth?
Persistent mouth-breathing and snoring in kids are worth flagging to both a pediatric dentist and an ENT. Enlarged tonsils and adenoids, a narrow maxillary arch, and low tongue posture can all restrict the airway, affect sleep quality, and drive downstream craniofacial and behavioural issues.
My child says their tooth hurts but nothing looks wrong. What now?
Pain without visible cause deserves an X-ray — interproximal cavities and cracks are invisible to the naked eye. If pain is spontaneous, wakes them at night, or is unresponsive to ibuprofen, book a same-day appointment.