Friday, July 23, 2010

Teeth

*Please excuse his messy face, he had just eaten a banana :)

My poor little sweet Owen smacked his mouth last week and chipped his front two teeth pretty bad. I have no idea how it happened, I just woke up Tuesday morning to Owen and his chipped tooth'ed smile. Must've happened after bedtime.

Right away I got him into a pediatric dentist. The dentist said that the one tooth that seemed to get the brunt of the impact has an exposed "pulp" and would need a "pulpotomy" (essentially a root canal), and for the other tooth, we would need to watch and wait. The procedure was scheduled for the following Tuesday. Well, during the week I noticed his other front tooth started turning gray, indicating that it was damaged and would need a pulpotomy as well. Before his procedure this past Tuesday the doctor agreed and ended up doing a pulpotomy on both front teeth, as well as caps put on to protect the teeth. He did say both front teeth were feeling loose, and there was no guarantee that the teeth wouldn't abscess and need to be pulled. Ryan and I elected to watch, wait, and pray that there wouldn't need to be any further intervention. The good news is, this is just an issue with baby teeth, and his permanent teeth should come in just fine with no problems.

It's been hard the past few days as Owen has recovered. His lip swelled up really bad, probably due to biting it when his upper lip was numbed. We had to ditch the pacifier cold turkey so he wouldn't loosen the teeth further, which makes naps and bedtime a challenge since he slept with the paci. We're hoping that a few weeks with no paci will help firm up his front teeth and allow them to heal.

Today he seems like he's back to his old self. We've got a busy day, which is welcomed since we've been hanging out at home this week.

Pray for O, for Ryan and I to have wisdom, and for no more intervention for his teeth!

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