If your child comes to you with a tooth in their hand, there are a couple of reactions that you can have. One is that you can be really excited and help them put their tooth under their pillow for the tooth fairy to come. The other is that you can be upset because they shouldn't have lost that tooth and you have to figure out what to do next. If their tooth has been knocked out, there are things that you can do to make it so that the tooth can go back into the mouth easily. So, what should you do?

Gently Rinse Off Debris

One thing you can do is to rinse off the debris that may be on the tooth. What you want to do is put it under a gentle trickle of water, just enough to rinse off dirt or anything else on the root. If there is gum tissue on the root of the tooth, do everything you can to make sure that you don't wash any of that off; it can help the tooth reseat itself back in the mouth. When you are rinsing the tooth off, make sure that you aren't touching the root or holding the tooth by the root, as you could damage the tooth that way. 

Reseat the Tooth

You can try to put the tooth in the empty socket; that would be the ideal solution. If you put the tooth back in the empty socket and it stays, then it has a good chance of healing properly and reintegrating with the rest of the mouth and the jaw. Don't try to force it, just gently try to put the tooth back into the socket. Forcing it could cause damage to the root of the tooth as well as the socket of the jaw. It doesn't matter if you can get the tooth back in the mouth or not, you should call the dentist or visit a dental clinic as soon as possible so that they can check out the tooth and help it heal correctly. The dentist will also make sure that the jaw isn't damaged at all. 

If your child has come to you with their tooth in hand and it was knocked out instead of falling out on its own, contact your local dental clinic so you can make sure that it will be able to heal and go back into their mouth as soon as possible.