Dental Update

I called the Keeley's dentist yesterday (since she had to see the on-call pedi dentist on Friday) to schedule a follow up appointment. They told me that as long as everything seemed okay at the moment, we would need to schedule the appointment about 2 weeks out so that we could see how the teeth were firming up. This was fine by me as I thought the less she had people in her mouth for a while the better. We continued to keep her on her soft food diet and have been monitoring her climbing escapades even more closely than usual.

Well, at 7:40 this morning I noticed that she was bleeding again. I have no idea what prompted it. She was simply running around the living room and I noticed that her drool had suddenly turned bloody. Of course I was nursing Kayden so I couldn't jump up right away but I thought that was okay since Keeley seemed completely unphased by the blood.

As soon as I could, I got up and inspected her mouth. The blood was coming from around those teeth so I let Kelly know and then waited until her dentist opened at 8 to call. They wanted to see her.

We went in and the assistant looked at her teeth and explained that the bleeding didn't seem to be too big of an issue because the gums were still injured the teeth were loose. She said we would probably just need to watch it and follow up in a month or so. Then she asked if Keeley still took a paci and I said yes. I didn't like her facial expression. She told me that using the paci probably wasn't in the best interest of those teeth but that we could talk to the doctor about it. In my head I'm thinking "No way. There is no way we are going cold turkey on the paci three weeks into Mother's Day out and 4 days after her traumatic fall."

Fortunately, the dentist agreed with my internal monologue. He said that it might do more damage psychologically to take it away from her after such a big incident and with her still being so young. THANK GOODNESS! He said we could just limit it as much as possible and watch to see if she quit taking it. Voluntarily stopping her paci use now would indicate that her teeth were probably hurting her.

Then we talked through all the scenarios. Best case scenario - the teeth firm up just like they should and she gets to keep both of them. Worst case scenario - one or both abcesses and we have to get them removed. He said he does that with or with out anesthesia depending on parent preference. What parent chooses without anesthesia?!?!? He also said that if he ends up having to take one out that he will probably just take them both out since they are both at risk for needing it. He says that instead of having to possibly go in twice, it made more sense to take them both at one time.

While he is going through all this, I am internally freaking out. Keeley is 18 months old. 18 months. She isn't going to get grown up teeth for a long time. I don't want her teased mercilesslily for being gap toothed. My face, I hope, simply shows my concern for Keeley's physical well being. I'm doubtful that is all it showed, however, because I have a very expressive face. I'm also quite certain there was a dramatic change in my face as soon as he said "If we have to take them both, we can do a pedi partial so she isn't missing those teeth" He then said that even if the tooth abcesses but doesn't have to be removed it might discolor and they can fix that cosmetically too.

Woo hoo! I certainly never would have imagined cosmetic dentistry for a preschooler but I'm glad that it is here to help us if we need it!