It's Only Five More Years

Well, we got Chick into the pediatric dentist for an emergency appointment Saturday and they said there was no hope for the tooth. Did I cry? Yes. Did Chick cry? Oh yea. But she was SOOO brave. We documented the ordeal with Hatcher's iPhone.

Our 3 hour visit to the ER. In this pic it's tough to see, but her right front tooth is knocked all the way back.

Clot= bad news for your toddler's tooth.

Her front tooth after they cleaned off the blood and gave her a numbing shot.

I almost asked the dentist not to numb her tooth because I swear that was the worst part of watching her get the tooth pulled. She was so good and didn't swat at the dentist's hands...but she was started shaking and crying. I got so sick watching her in pain that I was dizzy and sat down. Dental shots HURT!

And the deed was done. The dentist yanked out the tooth. The root was broke in half so the top half remained in her socket. It might get infected, it might push through her gums like a little tooth, or it might be dissolved into her gums over time.

Since her baby tooth was in trauma it will actually take her permanent tooth longer to come in. So we're looking at about 5 years to see Chick with a front tooth again. It's weird to think she'll be missing it much longer than she's been alive so far, lol.

We're encouraging her to bring it to church today to show her friends, and to school on Tuesday. But she won't look at herself in the mirror cuz she isn't used to it yet. I'll try to get pics of Chick with her new smile soon. (Yes, she still looks adorable)

Some things I learned from the ordeal:

1. Find out if your dentist has an emergency line. This was something I was really disappointed that ours didn't have.

2. To save teeth it's best to act FAST, like 15 minutes and under is best! For teeth that are displaced 5 mm or less, you can try quickly popping the tooth back in place. The problem is if the root is damaged, then it could still turn black and get infected. Chick's tooth was displaced 8 mm, so they say if we had reset the tooth it would have turned black, got infected, and would have been much harder to extract.

3. Rush to an ER if your dentist isn't open, but make sure you know an ER that has a dentist on call! And ask to be seen right away. We had to wait for an hour just to be seen, and then once we got in we found out they had no dentist on call.

4. Talk to your dentist about dental accidents so you can have game plans on what you should do. This is your kids' face were talking about!