Mouth Trauma - Mater Tooth

We had a wee bit of an accident while we were up in Montana.  It was a Friday night around 8pm - I swear medical issues only happen during after hours. Anyhow, my little man was pretty hyped up and was stepping out of the tub...preparing for his nightly naked dance...when he slipped and busted his mouth. (His hands were wrapped up tight in a towel so he didn't have them to break his fall.) Kevin was in the bathroom with him so I didn't see what happened - I only heard the scream that went along with it.  I think with any three year old, you never really know if their cry is warranted, but when I saw all the blood I knew the poor little guy hurt himself.  We were so grateful to have extra hands because I don't like dealing with trauma. I am sure we could have handled it but it was nice to have Sarah and Michael to help (Gigi and Papa were not there.) Considering how much Ryan does tend to cry, he was incredibly strong and calm once the initial shock wore off. Michael took him and talked to him and checked out his teeth.

This picture doesn't look horrible but his teeth were pushed back pretty far - when he bit down his teeth went behind his bottom teeth. There was also bruising and he tore the little frenulum thingy.

Since both teeth were still there....there wasn't much we could do. I called our pediatric dentist after-hours line and spoke with someone who basically said there really isn't anything you can do. Give him tylenol and as long as the tooth isn't in any danger of falling out (choking hazard) you just keep them medicated to deal with the pain.  We stayed up extra late watching Dora and i got some good cuddle time with him.  When he did go to bed I gave him the monitor and told him to call for me on it if he needed me. He woke up twice but went right back to bed. When he woke up in the morning he was sore but overall fine. Anyhow, Kevin spoke with a pediatric dentist in Montana and he also assured us that there wasn't anything we could/should do. So we carried on. I made an appointment with our PD for the day after we returned.

It's kinda nice to have an excuse to eat ice cream :)

When we returned we headed to the dentist and the first stop was x-rays. 

I hate x-rays - those darn things they stick in your mouth are so awkward and always seem to jab you...anyhow, he rocked it. No complaints from him!

So I don't have the x-ray but basically we were looking at a dead tooth. In the x-ray you could see how the left tooth (Ryan's right) was no longer connected to the roots. It's the tooth that hangs down a little lower. Once the circulation stops getting to the tooth, it won't get the nutrients it needs and it will die. Since everyone is different you don't know if the tooth will fade a little or a lot...but it's basically just cosmetic at this point. However, if the dead tooth get infected then we would need to make a decision on if we wanted to pull it or get a root canal. We are hoping this doesn't happen and the dr said that in most cases it doesn't. We are hoping that we fall within the "most cases" category.

For now we are just dealing with a goofy tooth- his "Mater" tooth (that's a Disney Cars reference for those of you who aren't familiar). Anyhow, he is still pretty darn cute and happy as a clam so we are happy too!

I really hate dealing with ouchies....but I know there will be many more to come....I better prep myself!