Human bites

Human bites can be either quite serious or relatively harmless. It is important to know which ones to worry about. Human bites consist of a range of injuries. They include intentionally inflicted bites but also any injury caused by coming in contact with the teeth. For example, if two children collide and the tooth of one causes a cut on the other, this is classified as a human bite.

Human bites causes

Human bites can be either accidental or intentional.

• Intentional bite injury: This generally happens during fights and can result in a whole range of injuries from minor bruising to partial loss of body parts (for example, ears or nose). Unfortunately, this can also be an injury seen in child abuse or sexual abuse cases.
• Seemingly intentional bites: Some bites may not be easy to classify as intentional because there is not a conscious decision on the part of the biter. The 2 most frequent situations are among very young children (often a new addition to the household is the recipient) and among people who have learning difficulties.
• Closed fist injuries: This bite occurs when someone punches another person in the mouth or, on occasion, accidentally strikes another in the mouth during sport or horseplay. These bites can cause damaging hand injuries and can be very serious if not properly cared for.
• Accidental bites: Typical head or other body part bites occur when clashing with someone else's tooth. These can be minor or, in the case of a head wound in young children, very serious.
• "I didn't know it was a bite!" category: Yes, we frequently run the risk of problems from doing things to ourselves that technically qualify as bites. For example, it is not a good idea to bite your nails because this can lead to an infection known as paronychia or a hangnail. Similarly, it is almost a reflex to suck on wounds or to kiss a child better, but if you introduce mouth bacteria, it could lead to problems.
• Love bites: These qualify as a human bite. However, if bruising is the only sign with no skin break, these are largely harmless. Other "love bites" cross the line into intentionally inflicted wounds and may be more serious.

Human bites symptoms

A human bite is generally obvious, but on occasion the victim is unaware (for example, the bite occurred while the victim was drunk) or reluctant to tell others (a teenager who was in a fight is one example). Be careful not to ignore cuts over the knuckles if there is the chance this happened in a fight. Otherwise, the two most important things to know about a bite are whether there is a skin break or signs of infection.